《Mind's Reach [ LitRPG, unique class, weak to strong, dungeons ]》


 Ch.001 - the Beginnings

    ¡°Are you done stocking those fucking shelves yet, Sam?!¡± An angry voice shouted across the corner store. The shouting was from a short, balding and slightly chubby man standing behind the cash register of the store, he was surfing something on his phone looking dissatisfied. He wore simple clothing with a T-shirt that had a written logo over the heart with the words ¡®Everyday Essentials¡¯, underlined by a wavy line and a nametag fastened just below it reading ¡®Larry Thompson, Owner and manager¡¯.


    The store itself was somewhat tight, using space as much as possible. The shelves were thin and needed to be restocked often to compensate for when sales happened. The air was moved slowly through a single air outlet in the corner. The shelves were stocked with the most common of items like snacks, bread, deodorant, toothpaste and so on. But it also had other common things like simple Arcane Crystal Batteries which were like disposable batteries, just much longer lasting.


    A wiry and lean young man in his early 20s replied. He had brown tired eyes, and lightly tanned skin with a hint of freckles from being outside a lot. Short barely managed beard and hair, looking like he managed it himself with cheap tools, got some visible scars on his face and arms from long ago. He was wearing simple and worn clothing with the same T-shirt as the yelling man, his badge read ¡®Sam, Sales associate¡¯.


    ¡°Yes, Mr. Thompson. I¡¯m just about done now.¡± His voice was polite and positive toned, however it was a clear facade that anyone working in retail or customer care knows all too well.


    His expression was tired and worn like his dreams had died and he had no better options than the one he was in. Larry locked his phone and put it in his pocket. ¡°Then fucking get over here and take over, I want to leave already.¡±


    ¡°Will do, Mr. Thompson.¡± Sam replied in his practised tone and fake smile as long as he faced his boss. He put some empty boxes just around the corner in the back room before walking to the cash register to a very annoyed short man.


    ¡°Good fucking lord you¡¯re slow, I¡¯m almost regretting hiring you off the streets. Felt nice that day but I¡¯m regretting that now!¡± The man yelled like everything was Sam¡¯s fault.


    ¡°I¡¯m very grateful you did, Mr. Thompson. I¡¯ll try better.¡± His practised fake smile became a more honest one when he thanked him, at least that part seemed legit, but it went back into the Retail-smile when he promised to try better.


    ¡°You fucking better, or I¡¯ll just fire you and hire some teen looking for work experience.¡± Larry huffed as he walked past Sam into the main store, heading towards the back room. ¡°When I get in tomorrow you had better done the cleaning properly this time.¡± He commented, disappearing without giving Sam a chance to answer.


    As soon as Sam heard the back door closed he let out an annoyed sigh. His fake smile became a piercing stare of anger and annoyance, the kind that would have you flagged on a list and get kicked out by most people. Thinking to himself how much he hated working for Larry, he also knew that he didn¡¯t have anything better. A man with his background, or lack thereof, without any family, experience or even an address, didn¡¯t have much to go on. He briefly mused back on the six-eyed gigantic lizard-like monster that rampaged in his neighbourhood and took out his family, their house and everything at once. He was lucky to make it out alive but the hospital bills from his damage drank up all the remaining funds they had. And apparently, the insurance didn¡¯t cover monster attacks so... He ended up on the street for quite a time, he lucked into persuading Larry to give him a job, just anything, at least it paid enough to let him live in a hostel in the area.


    Thinking back on all of this mellowed his expression out, though Larry was an asshole he at least gave him a job, a shit-paying job but it was enough to let him live, got him off the streets enough to have somewhere to sleep safely, to shower... He was eternally grateful but at the same time, he didn¡¯t have to be such a fucking ass about it.


    He sighed again, much calmer this time with a solemn expression on his face. He needed to use more time to find a better job, at least the job here had given him some experience, but it wasn¡¯t easy to talk to someone else and say that he had half a year of experience with a corner store, and that¡¯s it, no education or anything. And since he didn¡¯t have a proper permanent address it was harder still.


    Since there were no customers at the moment, he decided to get a head start on some of the later chores, he wanted to dick around on his phone but Larry sometimes checked the surveillance, which had caught him before, no matter how short it was. So he took a round in the store checking the shelves instead.


    Passing by one of the large windows, he looked outside and saw one of the large billboards that was plastered across the New York cityscape, it was one of those that flipped through several different ads for various things, but one always caught his eye. In an advertisement for The Aetheric Concord, abbreviated TAC, the ad¡¯s question asked if you had recently become a Player, and if so you should sign up with them. They had training and could help you with jobs, all for only a small cut of your rewards. He knew about them, and who wouldn¡¯t like to be a Player, to be powerful, to get all the money, all the women, all the fame... It was just all-around good, even if they took a cut it would be so amazing. But, it was a pipe dream like everything in Sam¡¯s life.


    The rest of the day was slow and normal, he had stocked the shelves, cleaned up and gotten the things out as Larry had earlier taught him, he tried doing the cleaning a little better than normal, but he doubted that there would be much difference in his boss¡¯ expression tomorrow anyway. Lowering the security grill a little bit, he walked over to lock the door before he lowered it all the way, but as he got close to it, the door opened and a man in a hoodie entered with force and speed, before Sam could react he had a boot in his gut that sent him backwards.


    Landing into one of the shelves filled with snacks he grabbed his stomach in pain, coughing and did his best to get back on his feet. The man who entered turned around and locked the door before he turned back to Sam. He walked over and kicked him in the face, it wasn¡¯t enough to make him black out but it gave him something else to consider as the man walked around in the store for a brief moment.


    The few things Sam managed to notice between his fingers, clutching his damaged and bloodied face, was that the man was walking around and spray-painting the security cameras, he knew where they were and was done in record time before he came back to Sam again, crouching down to his level.


    ¡°So, open the register, gimme the money.¡± His voice was commanding and surprisingly calm.


    Sam didn¡¯t get a proper glimpse of him. The man was wearing loose-fitting clothing, everything super common and things he had seen hundreds of times before, his hood was up and his face was covered in a Balaklava, his eyes covered in a mirrored ski-visor, he had gloves and every bit of him was covered. The only identifying aspects were his voice and his height.


    Sam nodded, from his time on the streets he knew how this would end. Either with the man getting what he wanted and Sam being left in pain, or the man getting what he wanted and Sam being left in even more pain, if alive at all.


    Doing his best to force himself to his feet, he walked over to the register, it wasn¡¯t easy as the blow to his gut made even keeping his balance problematic. Accidentally knocked over things as he shambled around the counter to open the cash registry, the emergency button was also there, as well as a baseball bat for defence. The man had no weapons so that mix of things felt good in his mind.


    Stepping in there, the man followed him very, very closely. Sam had the idea to feign falling forward and hit the emergency button at least. As he got in range he forcefully had his leg hit something and fell forward, he pressed the button as he caught himself but there was zero chance of getting the bat. Instead, he needed to stall for time.


    He fumbled with the registry, this part wasn¡¯t even him pretending, he was hurt and scared by the man who had shown before that violence was not foreign. Using it for what it was worth he failed again and again to open it.


    ¡°The fuck¡¯s the holdup, c¡¯mon man, get it open or I¡¯ll fucking kick you in the nuts!¡± The threat was low enough that it felt real, and terrifying enough that it worked well.


    ¡°I¡¯m trying, I can¡¯t see properly.¡± Sam lied, though not entirely a lie as there was blood in his face from the kick he got earlier.


    Before he could comment or try anything else he felt the pull of his clothing as the man just yanked him away, throwing him into the other side of the counter.


    ¡°Tell me how to open it, what do I do?!¡± The order was simple and harder to fake.


    ¡°Just type in a number and press Cash.¡± It wasn¡¯t a hard process, but it seemed that the man at least bought his earlier lie.


    As the man pressed the buttons and the sound of the drawer opened, Sam saw his opening. He grabbed the bat placed easily accessible under the counter and swung for the robber¡¯s head. The swing landed with a surprisingly satisfying feeling, but the man didn¡¯t go down.


    The man¡¯s head had only been tilted to the side from the blow, he just lifted it back upright as he turned around. ¡°That¡¯s not a smart move.¡±


    Sam¡¯s heart dropped, this was a Player. One of the powered-up people given abilities by the Towers around the world, most physically aligned Players had heightened damage resistance... Most people, at least not someone as lacking in physical prowess like Sam, had little chance against them.


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    The last thing he saw was a fist coming his way.


    ¡°Hey, hey, wake up!¡± Sam heard the faint echo of a voice as something lightly tapped his cheek, it hurt, quite a lot, from the earlier blows to his face but it got him awake.


    He looked into the face of a relieved police officer.


    ¡°Take it easy, you¡¯re safe now.¡± The man was smiling and looked honestly relieved.


    Sam took a look around, there were other officers in the store, a car with blue lights blinking outside and he could barely see some police tape barring the area being set up.


    Letting out a sigh of relief his head dropped back to the floor.


    ¡°You took some blows to the head, just relax, the EMTs will be here in only a moment.¡± The officer comforted.


    Sam relaxed, that was good news, everything sounded good but suddenly his mind realised something, he couldn¡¯t go through that again, he couldn¡¯t afford this. ¡°N--No, I¡¯m fine.¡± He forced himself to sit up. He had taken blows to the face before and though this was the first time he had blacked out completely, he at least had some vague ideas of the process.


    ¡°Dude.. No, calm down, you need medical care, you don¡¯t look too g-¡± The police officer insisted and though he didn¡¯t forcefully hold Sam down, he at least put a tiny bit of pressure on him to suggest he remain there.


    ¡°No, I¡¯m fine.¡± Sam forced himself up, grunting through the pain. ¡°I refuse the medical aid.¡± He forced out, he didn¡¯t know if that would mean anything but if he got another medical bill, it would most likely empty the tiny remaining sum of his account, he didn¡¯t have much left and was already living paycheck to paycheck.


    The officer looked almost insulted, but strangely he also seemed like he understood. ¡°That¡¯s fine, but at least relax, we need to take your statement of what happened here. The camera¡¯s sprayed up so they aren¡¯t any help.¡±


    Sam sat himself up, using the counter for back support and started going through everything that happened, he shared any details he could think of. If nothing else the surveillance cameras should show him getting booted in through the door and attacked.


    It didn¡¯t take too long before Larry came bursting through the back door. ¡°Sam, the fuck happened here?!¡±


    Sam¡¯s heart almost stopped, he didn¡¯t want his boss¡¯ bullshit on top of all of this. ¡°Th... there was a robbery, some guy kicked me in and locked the door-¡±


    Before Sam could continue, Larry interrupted him. ¡°The fuck happened to you?¡± Almost as if he didn¡¯t hear what Sam just said.


    ¡°I... I was attacked, he knocked me out and stole the m-¡± Before he could complete the sentence Larry snapped.


    ¡°You fucking let him take the money?! The fuck am I paying you for, can¡¯t even protect the store from a robb-¡± He had started a ranting rage, it wasn¡¯t the first time Sam had been on the receiving end of this.


    ¡°It was a Player, I hit him in the head but he di-¡± Again Sam didn¡¯t get a chance to defend himself.


    ¡°You hit him and still didn¡¯t manage to stop him? Good fuck you¡¯re shit. I th-.. I.. You know what, I¡¯ve had it with you, you¡¯re fired. Leave your shirt and don¡¯t come back.¡±


    Larry didn¡¯t seem to know where to even begin with this, but in the end, it fell on Sam not doing his job.


    The officer had gotten up and tried to calm him down, but Larry wouldn¡¯t hear any of it, the only thing he was after was that they get the man who did this, and how disappointed he was in Sam.


    Sam managed to get himself to his legs, he started walking towards the back door. On the way he wanted to fuck up his boss something fierce, he wanted to punch him, he wanted to use the bat and fuck up his head, he wanted to stab him in the throat with a shard of glass. But alas, there was nothing he could do, whatever he did it would be considered an assault, and the store was filled with cops so he¡¯d be fucked. Even more than he already was.


    Stumbling into the back room, he used considerable time to get his shirt off, showing considerable, long-since healed, scarring across his torso. Though he considered just leaving with it, after all, he doubted that Larry was going to come after him, at the same time it sounded plausible and he was the kind who commented that he would sue customers for certain things, he just didn¡¯t want to gamble on it.


    After finally getting it off, he threw it on the boss¡¯ desk before using just as long a time to get his jacket on before leaving.


    He was let through the blockade without much question, confirming that he had already spoken with the officer inside, a quick radio confirmed this and he was let go. He had some distance to go to the hostel, he felt like sleeping anywhere at the moment but the pain kept him awake, very much so.


    Limping through the streets he was given zero attention, most people walked past him like this was a normal thing to see on the streets. There weren¡¯t that many people this time of day, it was in the evening and somewhat darkening this time of year.


    Coming out from a side street he crossed a large plaza, looking to his side he saw the New York Tower, it was massive, reaching hundreds of stories into the sky. It started very wide, several skyscrapers in width but quickly tapered into the main Tower body, which reached tall into the sky. The New York Tower was surprisingly smooth, though it seemed to have some segments that almost looked attached to it, it had an almost white concrete appearance, save some of the spaces between these plates, where most of it looked black, almost obsidian in its shimmering translucence. A pulsing blue light went up the larger opening in the centre that reached almost the top. He often walked past the Tower on the way to and from work, it was nothing short of gargantuan, after all, so it could be seen from anywhere in the city due to its height. He often marvelled at how cool it could be to enter it, fight for amazing treasure, level up, get stronger, get loot and work your way through the levels and beat it.


    But, better men than him are trying, and failing, so that was even further into the void as a dream. All he could hope for now was to find a new job.


    Putting his dreams of glory, fame and amazingness to the side, he kept walking through the city until he finally got to his hostel. Entering it the door creaked, it was run down, had the barest minimum of maintenance, was quite dirty and was... just the minimum. Walking past the price board that initially got him here, listing that they are the cheapest in the city, costing only $10 per night or a discounted $60 for a week, it was what he could afford. It was cheap and had the barest of a minimum of things, though he shared the room with five others in bunk beds.


    Walking past the reception, the clerk stopped him and asked to confirm his ID. He showed it to her and she looked him up on a computer. ¡°Ah, Mr. Carter. You only have two days left of your prepaid week, if you want to keep it for another week you need to renew tomorrow at the latest.¡±


    She gave him a trained fake smile and polite tone, one he knew all too well. All he could do now was nod at her and go to his room.


    The stairs were murder, hard to walk up, opening the door to his room it seemed everyone else was already asleep, just as well as he didn¡¯t want to talk to anyone. Luckily enough he had the bottom bunk. He walked over and just rolled into it, passing out almost immediately.


    He woke up to the startling sound of something falling on the floor, his head snapping towards it with an intense fury he saw that it was just one of his hostel roommates who had dropped something from his locker. A second glance showed that it was just a sturdy lock with a whole keyring in its keyhole. It seemed like he just accidentally dropped it.


    Sam sighed, his head feeling like he headbutted a brick wall, his stomach feeling like... well... like he was stomped into a store shelf. Having just one more night left in the hostel, he just lay there as he took up his phone, checking his account. He had enough for another week if he skipped a few meals... It was going to be tight but he had to find something else to do.


    He focused back on his phone and with the remaining battery he started looking at places hiring people without experience or an education. There was not much but a few jobs looked acceptable. They all paid shit but he just needed something that kept him housed and fed, he could keep looking then.


    As he fell further and further into despair, finding fewer and fewer jobs he could have a chance at, something happened which changed his expression.


    What looked like a fancy metal-grey menu window came into view, the border of it had some filigree-like things around it filled with some black lines along its edge. His eyes looked to the sides, the window remained where it was until he turned his head, it kept itself in his view but didn¡¯t remain locked in the centre of his focus.


    [ Are you ready to become a Player? ]

 Ch.002 - Menus and stats!

    The window hovered in his line of sight, it was incredible, felt like a dream, almost too good to be true. He wanted to question it if it was true.


    [ Are you ready to become a Player? ]


    There were two choices; Yes or No.


    A tiny line underneath almost as a fine print, explained that he only needed to mentally confirm the answer and the System would understand.


    He didn¡¯t want to risk anything, parts of him thought this could be a prank but he didn¡¯t care. Mentally he chose the Yes option and almost as if it was clicked on a computer a small box surrounded the word before it blinked before the whole window closed itself by the top and bottom part of it collapsing before it disappeared into a fading line.


    Sitting up, he looked around. Nothing felt different, it was all the same. Shouldn¡¯t there be any sounds, anything? He had read from testimonials that it¡¯s a bit different for everyone, but everyone said that the change was immediate, that they felt different, there should be menus and everything explaining things.


    A few seconds later a similar window opened, it didn¡¯t have the same filigree around it, but the same window except that it was red-hued instead of white.


    Then everything hit at once. Several windows opened but the first thing he properly noticed was the feeling in his body. All damage to him was healed, his scars remained but the wounds he had closed properly, the dirt on his body faded, and all pain subsided.


    He felt great!


    This was amazing, it was like he was in his best shape ever, no. More than that. He felt stronger, better. Taking a look at his arms there were some slightly defined muscles there, more than he had earlier today. Well, not a substantial increase but it was enough that he noticed it.


    Finally focusing on the various windows in his vision they explained the simple things, but one thing was placed before everything else.


    [ Welcome, Player Sam Carter. ]


    The other windows were behind this massive title, almost like a welcoming screen this had the filigree on the sides, but the others did not.


    As he looked at the others properly the welcoming one closed as soon as he stopped focusing on it. His eyes snapped back to where it was but there was nothing, as he thought that he wanted a second look at it, it came back!


    Just as the fine-print-like text on the first window asking him if he wanted to be a Player, it was indeed linked to his mind.


    He went through the other ones one by one.


    First, there were some explanations, listing how this worked in more detail. He could just think of the different windows and they would pop up where he wanted them in his field of vision. The order of things is that he¡¯ll be given a class, followed by at least one appropriate skill, and at the end, he¡¯ll be given the option to allocate bonus Attribute points.


    Everything was so exciting, he was practically vibrating where he sat in his bed. Luckily he was the only one awake in the room at the moment.


    Mentally accepting the explanation brought up the first thing it said would happen, a class screen. He had read a lot about this and he knew that this was either pre-determined and just displayed neatly, or an actual roulette-like thing where you just had to accept whatever was given to you.


    The window that took his focus was titled Class, with a single dash in the middle. As soon as he focused on the dash it changed and started flipping through various titles. He couldn¡¯t read them all but he saw a few common ones flip by; Warrior, Mage, Healer, Rogue, they came up more than once but it listed some other and more exotic ones as well, like Spellblade and Artificer.


    He knew that he would just have to accept whatever came, but in the deepest part of his mind he wanted a cool and powerful one, he wanted to become amazing, to have the power needed to never get shat on again.


    The rotation of words was slowing down, bit by bit, almost as if a digital roulette was losing its momentum before it was just a few ones a second, then to one a second before it stopped.


    [ Telekinetic - X ]


    Sam was a bit confused, he knew he didn¡¯t know about all the classes but this one sounded new to him, but he knew rough ideas about the ranking system, a simple letter grading from S through E. But in this case rather than a proper grade, it just had an X.


    As he focused on it with a questioning mind a side window opened.


    [ A Telekinetic excels at using force with their mind, like having invisible hands they can manipulate things or fields from afar. ]


    This didn¡¯t feel satisfactory as an answer, but it would probably explain itself later, if not he could always research it at that point. The same with the letter grade, not like he could change his mind about this so he could look into it later.


    The Class window moved to the side, giving way for the next. The one titled Skills took focus and listed a few skills with some information.


    [ Telekinetic attribute bonus: +5 Spirit ]


    [ Telekinetic¡¯s attributes: The Telekinetic¡¯s interaction with attributes is different than others. ]


    [ Energy Pool: 2 ]


    [ Area of Influence: 10m/30ft (expandable) ]


    [ Force Launch: Launch things with telekinetic force ]


    [ Psyhands: Manifest telekinetic hand-like forces ]


    Each of the entries was listed in its own tiny window that was stacked on top of the next, almost like they snapped together neatly. To the right another window opened, listing his Attributes.


    [ Attributes:


    STR: 4


    DEX: 4


    VIT: 3


    SPT: 5 (+) ]


    It was listed in a little window, the SPT one had a green plus that blinked for a few seconds before fading, it felt logical that this was the way the system displayed that it was a change to this stat.


    Though most of this made sense on its own, Sam was somewhat confused and needed more information, he had skills now. He knew the Players worked on stats which could be augmented by items or abilities, but he didn¡¯t know much else.


    He checked each one of them individually for more explanation before moving on.


    The Attribute bonus was explained as a bonus baked into a class package, all classes got their own that fit their class and was locked down to give the Player a starting boost. The Telekinetic¡¯s Attributes were a bit harder to understand. When the System explained it in more detail, it first gave the simplest of explanations of all the skills, like how DEX aided ranged attacks, both the chance to hit and also the potential damage. The Telekinetic, when using their Telekinetic abilities, would rely only on Spirit, even for ranged attacks. Objects thrown, shot, fired or otherwise with his normal hands still needed the appropriate STR or DEX.


    The Energy pool was simple and not that detailed, it was a constantly refreshing pool of energy that his abilities would consume, but this was a hard pool. The skills didn¡¯t consume it for later recharge as he had read about mana, instead, an ability locked down a certain point cost when in use, and when that ability was stopped the point instantly returned to the pool.


    The Area of Influence was the range everything worked in, his Psyhands for example would stop working outside of this area, he also couldn¡¯t affect items or anything outside of it, but by dedicating Energy to it he could expand it by a few steps per point, it was static if not boosted by Energy.


    Force launch was tied into the Psyhands, rather than throwing things he could launch them with telekinetic energy, and this launch happened from the force holding the item. The Psyhands were somewhat simple to understand, they were basically telekinetic forces, but it was easier to imagine them as invisible hands, he could manifest more Psyhands at the cost of more energy.


    He was getting eager, very, very eager. As he accepted the information he read the windows collapsed into the list to the left in his vision, alongside the Class. The attributes were still on the right alone. In the middle of his view another window opened, it was a clone of the Attribute window but had an arrow pointing up, and down, next to each number with a plus and minus inside.


    A little side window explained each Attribute and what they did, but the explanation for Spirit had everything greyed out with an updated description added which was notified as altered by [ Telekinetic¡¯s Attributes ].


    All the Attributes¡¯ explanations made sense. STR made you carry more, hit harder and so on with melee, DEX made it easier to hit and hit harder with ranged, VIT determined health, stamina and resilience to damage, and the original, greyed explanation for SPT was that it represented magical strength, influencing mana and magical attack damage. The updated explanation stated that it affected the Telekinetic¡¯s Energy, Telekinetic Carry Capacity and Damage caused when launching things.


    All of the explanations also listed the math behind how the Attributes worked.


    He was getting even more ecstatic, this looked fun and interesting, and he would be able to remote-manipulate things, throw things and whatnot. Having multiple hands, metaphorically, at range that he could do things with was nothing short of amazing!


    Immediately wanting to test it, he looked at his phone in the bed, mentally thinking of using the Psyhands to make one hand. The system¡¯s interface listed two small windows in the corner of his eye.


    [ Psyhands: 1 ]


    [ Energy: 1 (2) ]


    He couldn¡¯t see the hand, not at all. But he knew exactly where it was, like having a blindfold and moving your hand around, you know where it is related to yourself.


    Extending it he grabbed the phone and lifted it!


    Except, that it didn¡¯t move. He could see the cloth under it moved as if he was lifting it just a little bit, but not enough to lift it. Considering how you use more than one hand to lift heavier objects, he activated the Psyhands again and manifested a second hand, grabbing the phone and lifting it!


    The windows updated.


    [ Psyhands: 2 ]


    [ Energy: 0 (2) ]


    The phone moved some more, lifting a little bit due to the support of the blanket under it, but not enough to lift it off the bed.


    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    He was getting miffed and looked up the math for the stats again. The carry capacity weight was listed as SPT x 10 grams/0.35 ounces. This meant that using two hands he could just lift double that... This felt... lacklustre. With all his Player power he could not even lift a 10-year-old phone... He took the phone with his normal hands and did a quick search to find the weight of the phone, it was listed as ~135 grams/4.8 ounces, well outside his two-hand lifting capacity.


    However, the Spirit attribute defined not only weight but also Energy, the Energy math was SPT / 2, rounded down. And according to the remaining window he had 5 bonus points to place in his Attributes. Without thinking he slammed them all into Spirit, the little window to the right blinked the green plus icon and the 5 changed into 10 before the plus faded.


    He put the phone back in the bed and he now saw two things, first the windows listing Psyhands and Energy had changed.


    [ Psyhands: 2 ]


    [ Energy: 3 (5) ]


    And second, trying again with the two hands now managed to lift the phone!


    It started hovering and just as instinctual as lifting it with both his normal hands he was moving it around himself. Up, down, to the sides, behind him without watching. It was amazing, his adrenaline was pumping, he flew the phone around and as it was above his other hand he handed it to himself. It felt surprisingly natural, it just felt good!


    He was a Player!


    Wanting to try out the Force Throw, he didn¡¯t want to use his phone, rather he wanted to go outside and just find something random. Getting up with sudden gusto he made for outside in a hurry. Rushing down the stairs, heading for the door. As he ran out he checked out the explanation for how Force Throw worked.


    It based itself on the weight the Psyhands could lift, and in addition to using Energy to manifest the hands, he would need to use additional energy to create the force to launch them. If it was a light object, considering the weight he could carry, it cost 1 Energy to launch it. If it was at, or near, the max carry capacity of one hand, it cost 2 Energy. If he needed to use two hands to hold it, it automatically cost 3 Energy and if it was more than that, it just cost more in a scaling way.


    He somewhat ignored the math, for now, he just wanted to test it. And given that he was in the more shady areas of the town, there were plenty of small alleyways only populated by rats or birds at best. The main thing they had going for them today was debris and trash!


    Almost falling over as he rounded the corner of the building, he just darted for the closest alleyway he knew of, finding himself there in record time. Panting as he looked into the alleyway, it was perfect. No people around, lots of trash and objects, and nothing stopping him.


    He manifested one Psyhand, the windows updating accordingly. He reached out as far as he could and picked up something within the limit over there. He had to fumble about a bit to find something light enough but in the end, he found an old empty tin can. It lifted in the air without problems, feeling like he had just stretched out an arm at the furthest he could and picked up something out there. Not a problem at all and again surprisingly natural.


    He took aim at a beer bottle on the side and activated the Force Throw ability, he could feel the energy leave him as a pulse of invisible energy extended from his nonexistent hand, as if a water balloon popped in his hand. Not painful nor problematic, just a weird push. The tin can slammed into the wall next to the bottle, he missed by a bit more than a whole step. It didn¡¯t matter at the moment, he was just excited like a kid, with parents and a family, at Christmas!


    Testing a bit more he found out that if he tried to put more energy into the throw of the tin can, it didn¡¯t throw it any harder, the Energy just wasn¡¯t consumed. But as soon as he picked up heavier things the throwing energy changed on its own. Just as the listing explained, he quickly ran out of Energy as he had to manifest more hands and use more energy, so he never really hit the max weight he could multi-carry hand, and throw at the same time. He needed spirit, he needed more!


    He kept testing a bit, getting a bit more hang on the weird angle throwing but found out that it might just as well be easier to slam things together rather than throwing it. The only thing throwing things gave as a bonus was that it kind of hit harder, and could extend his range outside of his Influence.


    Using Energy to expand his Influence also worked fine, it was kind of like your arm just growing a little.


    After all this he was beginning to feel a bit drained, more from the adrenaline hype he had been on so far than the energy usage. As soon as he stopped using the Psyhands the energy returned, he could never go into the minus nor did it feel weird or negative being at 0 Energy. He had heard of mages who feel like shit at, or close to, zero in Mana. So he must be lucky there.


    Leaving the alleyway, heading back to his hostel bed, in the corner of his eye he saw something, a billboard with a familiar almost propaganda-like advertisement on it.


    Have you recently awakened as a Player?


    Why not come to The Aetheric Concord?


    TAC will help get you started. Start your Player dream today!


    Though it was a bit over the top in one way, he knew that TAC did what they claimed. At a modest cut of whatever you earned, you would get some simple training, explanations, and perhaps even a team if you¡¯re lucky.


    Something clicked in the back of his mind, he wanted this now, the Player dream he considered just yesterday was now possible. He started running, he knew where the TAC building was, it was not far from the Tower as it made the most sense to be there. He ran, faster than he had ever done before. He was feeling drained as he ran, but nowhere near as much as he used to, considering that this might be Adrenaline that seemed to trigger The System. A System window opened, displaying that his VIT was 3, and a shrinking bar listed as his remaining Stamina.


    This felt amazing, knowing roughly how much stamina you had left was just out of this world. He stopped running and started walking instead, the Stamina bar slowly filled up, and as he started running again it started decreasing. He was giddy, he had played some games in his younger years before the monster in his neighbourhood fucked things up, and this felt somewhat like those games. It gave him a strange calming nostalgic feeling.


    Though boosted by the System, he was still not a skilled sprinter, he had to stop and walk several times, even taking a full-on break when he let the stamina meter run out. Even so, he made it there in record time compared to himself just yesterday. The starting boost of becoming a Player is cheating Human evolution quite a lot.


    But, that was a thought for another day, right now he looked at the impressive and massive building in front of him. The Tower was to the side, still in the distance but towering and looming over the whole city, but the TAC building looked much more governmental. Almost like a massive concrete slab that was just planted there, it had minimal decorations and was made for practicality more than anything. Several patch jobs here and seemingly being built in segments gave it an almost patchwork-like appearance, just in concrete.


    There was no line, but there were a lot of people mingling and loitering about. Some were obviously other Players, carrying massive weapons, wearing gilded and almost otherwordly clothing and armour, and some were even testing things and throwing fire magic in the rough distance of the Tower.


    Sam entered the building, up the long stairs into a lobby that looked almost like a government waiting room. He knew they were heavily sponsored by the government but this just felt... weird...


    That said, it was well lit up and everything had small signs, arrows or coloured lines along the floor connected to words saying where ¡®this place¡¯ is.


    Sam found the sign for ¡®Registration¡¯, and followed the coloured line along the floor to a young woman sitting behind a desk in a booth, there weren¡¯t many people there, as well as several booths, so there was no wait for him to walk up.


    He stopped behind a line on the floor with the message to ¡®wait here until called¡¯, though he only had to wait for a few seconds before the young woman, seemingly in her late 20s, called him forward.


    ¡°Welcome to The Aetheric Concord, New York office. How may I help you today?¡± It was a well-practised sentence, probably said it many times just today.


    Sam looked at her more than her words, she was surprisingly attractive for a job like this, with smooth skin, good makeup, well-maintained hair and all around looked healthy. A glance at the other booths showed that the other men and women here were somewhat similar, perhaps it was a recruitment requirement?


    It didn¡¯t matter now, he was here for a reason.


    ¡°Yes, well... I recently became a Player, earlier today. And I... well... I need help.¡± He honestly smiled, feeling good about this smile, for the first time in quite a time.


    ¡°Sure thing, if I can just have your ID we can start the process. I will need to know your class, base skills and stats. This is not information that will be shared but we need it to measure your progression.¡± She motioned to a device which had an oversized handprint on it.


    The device was listed as a ¡®Player Appraisal¡¯, and a small info in the middle of the hand explained to ¡®Place hand here¡¯.


    Sam produced his ID, handed it to her and placed his hand on the device.


    She did something on her computer, which woke the device up and started scanning him. It felt surprisingly weird, like warm air wafting out of the device and covering him. It wasn¡¯t negative, just weird.


    At the same time, she explained the rough details of things. TAC would take a 20% cut of everything he found, earned or obtainedas long as he worked for them. If he wanted to keep something he found that was too valuable for this agreement, he would have to work or pay with something else to make up the difference. If he wanted to terminate the contract with them, this could happen at any time, but all monetary obligations needed to be handled before that went through.


    All in all a surprisingly simple thing, though in their favour they would balance it out by giving him a starter package with some armour, a few simple potions and some gear, as well as helping him with the simplest of introductory courses of things.


    He could sell anything extra he wanted to them, and they would calculate his cut based on the market price, and as a member of TAC, he would get access to their auctions and stores to buy better gear, skill crystals and so on.


    He didn¡¯t see anything too negative here, the 20% cut was less than taxes in most cases so all in all it felt pretty good.


    ¡°Hmm... This is strange.¡± She let out, snapping Sam out of his train of thought with zero subtlety.


    ¡°Wh.. what''s the problem?¡± Sam let out before he realised it, feeling a bit nervous.

 Ch.003 - The value of remote control

    She looked up from her screen with a reassuring expression.


    ¡°Our records can¡¯t find your Class. It¡¯s not a problem, we have discovered new  classes like this before, but it just means that we can¡¯t necessarily give you any class-specific training right away.¡± She seemed somewhat apologetic about this.


    A relieved sigh escaped his lips, for a brief moment he thought something was wrong. But if they didn¡¯t have his class on file it made sense why he hadn¡¯t heard about it before. During his relieved thoughts, the machine let out a little blip before turning off. A tiny screen beside it lit up with his attributes and list of skill names.


    ¡°Please confirm that this is correct.¡± She commented, pointing at the screen.


    Sam brought up the list of things in his vision, the System producing the requested info right away, and everything looked matched up as far as he could see.


    ¡°Looks good to me.¡±


    Seconds after he confirmed it the little screen turned off as the woman continued for a few moments.


    ¡°Good, we¡¯re done. If you just take this card with you through that door, there is an intro course starting in a few hours. You can wait in there if you want, or just come back when it starts.¡±


    Pushing a temporary TAC-ID card alongside a few brochures and information papers to him she looked at him with a practiced smile.


    Taking his normal ID card, he put it back in his wallet before he took everything else with a slight smile.


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    He gave her a nod and left for the door she pointed at, it wasn¡¯t like had much else to do anyway so he might as well wait in here.


    Opening the door he entered a long hallway that opened up into a large room, almost akin to a rectangular gym hall with staired seating on one side, being surprisingly long in the direction away from the seating to the point of having some targets in the far distance. Going in he found himself somewhere to sit. There were already a few people in here, most looking as green as he did, wearing street clothing or something loose like a tracksuit.


    As he sat down he overheard some of them speaking, there were a few groups here. Most were loners like Sam but a few seemed to be a small group of two or three, talking about how they were going to do this and that, and how this and that ability was better than their friends¡¯ because of... This went on for the whole hour he waited. Though, he ignored most of it and rather focused on his own stuff. He wanted to play with his powers but it would probably not be smart to just all willy-nilly flail about with what he could do, not only for secretive purposes but mainly for safety. They were all new in using their abilities and he could accidentally hurt someone. Instead, he tried smaller things like manifesting a Psyhand and stretching it out, seeing if he could barely move objects in the distance by focusing his Energy into his Area of Influence, though his maximum range, considering manifesting one hand using his remaining Energy; was just 15m/50ft. Thought he was happy with the rough 50% range boost at the moment. Once he felt done with that, he did other things like using them close, playing with his shoelaces or trying to move things in his pockets. Just trying out subtle things like that. It made him surprisingly happy, even though he could only lift about an apple with each hand.


    The door in the hallway opened and remained open for several seconds before it closed again, footsteps closed in before two men and one woman came out into the hall where everyone else was. They all wore very simple-looking leather armour, though it had what looked like glowing glyphs or runes on it. It was easy to guess that this was the entry-level armour they would be using.


    But one of the men was much more intimidating. According to the picture and information in the pamphlets given by the clerk, this was Chief Trainer Toren Ashfold. He stood a bit taller than average, looking to be in his mid-40s, quite muscular and honed. Lightly tanned skin, strong jawline, piercing blue eyes and short, neatly maintained brown hair with flecked grey at the temples. He wore the same armour as the others but it looked substantially weaker and less covering on his slab of a body.


    ¡°SO!¡± He shouted out, quieting any murmurs or talking in the hall and gaining complete attention. ¡°You want to become Players. That¡¯s good, very good. But it¡¯s very, very dangerous. Some of you will most likely die the first time you enter Aetheria. Some might die the second time, arrogance is a harsh enemy. Today we¡¯re going to go through the basics of how Aetheria works, what you should consider and if there¡¯s time, some light training.¡±


    His voice boomed and carried well, he sounded like he had done public speaking for most of his life, and though he looked incredibly rough and intimidating, there was a strange warmth to his words.


    He proceeded to explain the basics, how to enter Aetheria, which was just to enter an area the Tower had reach in, and the System would display information for you. Though the most common place for this was around the Towers themselves, there might be pockets here and there, these were commonly referred to as Dungeons.


    Further explaining he touched on how to find these, what to do once you find them and so on. Everything was ranked on a list of letter grades the System has made, displayed from the lowest to highest, the letter E, the letter D, C, B, A and S above A. This was the same for classes, items, monsters, dungeon job difficulty, and so on. Everything was scaled on this rank on a comparative scale. An E-grade sword could be better than a D-grade dagger, but a D-grade dagger would be worse than a B-grade dagger. Somewhat logical.


    The continued explanation was that this shouldn''t be taken blindly, a novice with an A-grade weapon wouldn¡¯t automatically be better than an expert with an E-grade weapon, though the weapons would comparatively have a massive difference, by itself it¡¯s not always a definitive answer. However, in item value, it was almost always the case.


    The Chief Trainer continued, talked about all kinds of different things, kind of an information overload about everything from the item rarity and Towers to the auction, how to find help in the Plains of Aetherium and much, much more.


    Sam did his best to absorb it all, but it was several hours of talking and explanation. It helped when they got to see small snippets of videos, but as most of them were to explain what he was talking about it didn¡¯t help too much.


    The videos of the recruits being brutally torn apart by monsters within Aetheria woke them up a lot, as did the graphic butchering and dismantling videos and the damage certain explosive skills could do. He explained that they were going to go into that world, so they needed to handle at least that much, there was plenty of gore in this line of work, even for support classes such as healers.


    The main goal, as they called it, of the Towers was to beat it. At least that¡¯s how much they had gathered. Aetheria was split up into floors, levels or whatever you wanted to call them. A floor could be beaten by triggering the condition of that floor, in some it was killing a boss, in others it was a puzzle, or it could be something else. It was unique to the floor and wasn¡¯t something they knew at the start. It wasn¡¯t always explained to them and in some cases, they needed to find out on their own.


    The process ended with a small recess of sorts, Toren wanted a quick check of their abilities and tried to aid them in their use, he had the experience and seeking input or aid from others should always be positive.


    Sam just used the brief moment to keep playing with his telekinesis, though at one point he thought that Toren noticed, he was eyeing him weirdly, which had Sam stopping and just relaxing instead.


    Eventually, the break was over and they were all to come down to the floor. At this time several other people came in through the hallway and just stood on the side to watch. They were all armed and armoured, one person stranger or more elaborately dressed than the next, as they just stood there focus returned to the Instructor as soon as he started talking.


    ¡°The three of us are going to go through with you one by one, we¡¯ll see what you can do and try to help you find good ways to use your skills, we have training weapons and armour, and this room is also covered in a barrier, so we should be safe as long as you listen to the instructors.¡± He eyed everyone with judging eyes. Though the room looked fine, it was clear that it was not in pristine shape, signs of repair were found in certain areas of the room so this warning was not without reason.


    Everyone remained in a pile of students, but the three instructors split up and waved people over one by one. Sam was not among the first called over so he got to see the instruction from the sidelines first. The people with physical skills were given a weapon and some guidance on how to use their skills best, where to hit and aim, what to do in certain cases and so on. They also explained how to take advantage of their skills and strengths, and how to make up for their weaknesses. Most of it sounded textbook but that¡¯s usually a good place to start.


    People with more magical abilities were told to send a spell down the room. Then got pointers on things based on what they saw.


    Eventually, it was Sam¡¯s turn.


    ¡°Next!¡± Toren commanded.


    Sam walked up, having kept an eye on all the others before him, he right away answered the questions they asked everyone.


    ¡°My name is Sam, my class is a Telekineticist and I can lift and manipulate things from afar.¡±


    Toren mused for a moment. ¡°Ah, so you¡¯re the one.¡± He didn¡¯t look entirely happy but took a good look at Sam.


    ¡°I haven¡¯t seen a Telekineticist before, so I don¡¯t know the extent of what you can do. Explain in more detail and I¡¯ll see.¡±


    He looked at Sam judgingly, but positively, hinting that he wanted to help.


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Sam explained the gist of his powers, he didn¡¯t go into extreme detail just how they functioned.


    ¡°That¡¯s actually not bad, let¡¯s give things a try.¡± He pulled some weapons from a rack of training weapons next to him, taking out a single arrow, a one-handed sword, a dagger and a larger sword.


    ¡°Show me what you can do with these.¡± He started by giving him the arrow and pointed at a target in the distance.


    Sam reached out with a telekinetic hand and grabbed the arrow, he was extremely relieved to see that it was light enough for him to lift it with one Psyhand, he felt that he could probably barely lift two arrows with one hand.


    To the unaware eye, one of the arrows would just start floating from Toren¡¯s hand, lining itself up towards one of the targets in the distance and with a low volume, dull pulsing sound, it darted towards it.


    Though the arrow hit, to Sam¡¯s glee, it didn¡¯t hit well. It got a 2-point hit on a max of 10 points target, however, he hit on the first attempt and felt great about that.


    Toren took a look at it from a distance and made a little humph before he handed Sam the dagger. The dagger wiggled in his hand but didn¡¯t lift right away, Sam had to manifest a second hand to get it to lift properly. Though when it did lift it was well within a two-hand grip¡¯s limit.


    The instructor held out his sword in a solid grip. ¡°Attack the sword, as hard as you can.¡±


    Sam focused and did as told, putting in all the weight and power he could, using the momentum of a swing to his advantage. The first few swings didn¡¯t even have a solid sound in the attack, almost as if he was using his frail arms to do the strike. He tried to mix in the Force Thrust, but he couldn¡¯t hold onto them properly without ruining the attack entirely.


    Toren told him to stop and handed him the training sword. But though a wooden copy of a long sword, it was too heavy for him to lift, even when using all five hands on it.


    ¡°I... I can¡¯t.. It¡¯s too heavy...¡± Sam admitted in defeat.


    He heard snickering and laughter behind him. Through hushed one of the boys commented. ¡°His arrow lands weaker than a bow, his dagger is weaker than my hands, and this kind of shit-tier man is going to die.¡±  It was said to his friend, who joined him snickering.


    Toren didn¡¯t pay it any mind and rather started thinking. ¡°Without any force behind the attack, I can¡¯t recommend you attacking, but you might be able to become a decent support, throwing things like bombs, picking up things from afar that are dangerous, triggering traps from a safe spot, things like that.¡±


    He looked at Sam with some sadness in his eyes. ¡°I¡¯m afraid I just don¡¯t know how to help you. Try to find some supportive way to get some experience, things might change later.¡±


    The boy who snickered before failed to stifle a mocking laugh. Sam wanted to comment but... everything was true. He also saw the boy, earlier, let out a fireball enough to scorch a wall, so it¡¯s not like he had a good starting point.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, kid.¡± Toren comforted. ¡°Worst case scenario you¡¯ll probably make a great support Player.¡±


    Seeming to almost want to change the topic, he simply looked at the rest of the group. ¡°Next!¡±


    Sam was deflated, so he went to sit down, he didn¡¯t keep training like the others but rather waited for the next step. They would get some more information on how to join a newbie outing, which would at least let him experience things for himself. But for now, he waited and mentally worked on getting to term that even though he wouldn¡¯t be the hero, at least he was a Player, and at least he could finally get some money, at least enough to eat well for a change.


    This helped his mentality a little bit, even though it might just be coping at least he was feeling a little better about it.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about what he said.¡± A male voice stated as some dude sat down in the chair next to Sam.


    Sam had a glance at him, the man had shoulder-long brown hair kept back in a pink ribbon, he wore a mismatch of clothing that almost looked like he fell through a good-will store, a bandana over his forehead, of all things a rubber duckie hanging off his belt, a ring on each finger, at least five bracelets, four pins over his vest and... he was a walking lost & found. He had a sword at each hip, the one on his left side, so the one he used in his right hand, looked a little heavier. Along his belt on his lower back was the sheath for a dagger.


    ¡°And you are?¡± Sam asked dryly, already in a somewhat sour mood, and though his mental pep talk was making the situation ever so slightly better, being interrupted by this guy didn¡¯t help much.


    ¡°Name¡¯s Janik, with a J.¡± He commented as he pronounced it more like Ya-nick, it seemed like this was something that happened often.


    ¡°And ignore what Mr. Master Trainer over there is saying. He can only see things with the eyes of raw power. I don¡¯t think he gets the value of remote control.¡±


    ¡°... The value of remote control?¡± Sam asked with a confused expression as he somewhat used his hand simulating using a TV remote.


    ¡°Not that kind of remote, you fuck. Using things remotely. I saw your little test and heard, at least some of what you explained to him. You shouldn¡¯t underestimate being able to do things ¡®over there¡¯.¡± At the end of his comment he used his arms to emphasise a location and when he said ¡®over there¡¯ he moved one of his hands and wobbled it in a different area.


    ¡°I mean, good Ol¡¯ Slabchest over there, he tested you for direct combat and said that you should consider support, that makes sense from his mindset but. You couldn¡¯t lift heavy things but what if you just get a bunch of toothpicks or needles, and shove them in the eyes of everything around you? You can take your time and just slit their throats afterwards.¡± He nodded to himself as if he had the best idea in the world.


    ¡°Even the biggest baddie usually has a weak point or two. Hell, you might not even need items, just use your voodoo hands and poke them in the eyes, yank at their eyelids, and twist their nuts. Weak force is surprisingly powerful if used in the right way.¡±


    This caused Sam to consider things very differently, at first he was infected by Toren¡¯s mentality and explanation. But as the saying goes; If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.


    ¡°You have a good point. I... I have to admit that I was affected by his mentality there...¡± Sam forced a smile, not even a good one, he instantly realised that this weird man just saw things differently. Though, he was still a weird man.


    ¡°Now. I think it¡¯s a good idea to go with them on that training thing. It¡¯s most likely going to be a mining mission with someone experienced, that is what my first one was, so you can see a fight and learn the basics of material gathering. But when you get back, hit me up. I would like to learn more about your abilities, and if we¡¯re lucky, we might go in together at some point.¡± He smiled honestly at Sam.


    At the end of his explanation, he took out his phone and opened a contact card, reading his name and number, and showing it to Sam.


    Sam pondered it for a few seconds but decided to save it on his phone, after all, it wasn¡¯t like he shared his details, so if he changed his mind he could always just not contact him.


    ¡°I¡¯ll consider it, if nothing else you have given me some good ideas, and a different way to think about this.¡± He smiled properly again.


    Sam genuinely felt happy about this now. Though originally sad when Toren stated that he should consider support, it wasn¡¯t a bad idea, perhaps he should start like that and migrate once he got more experience and more testing done. Now he was getting ideas on how to leverage the little force he had available. After all, as Janik said; Weak force could be strong if used right.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Sam ended with gratitude, it was only fair.


    Janik got up from the seat and left, not seeming too interested in the other new Players, he just headed into the hallway and disappeared.


    Sam didn¡¯t have to wait long for the topic in the room to change from personal guidance to an upcoming training job. As Janik predicted it was going to be a routine resource-gathering mission. Experienced Players would go with them and find something for them to fight, or at least be a part of harassing to get some hands-on experience. They would learn how to harvest simple things, but all in all, this mission was just a way to ensure that their first trip was relatively safe.


    Sam had no plans to make friends, but he was open to the option. Right now, he just wanted to go in there and see what he could figure out to do.


    ¡°Well, if everyone is still on board, gear up, go to the toilet, and have a snack, we¡¯ll head there in a few moments.¡± Toren explained as the two other instructors had left and returned with some shelves on wheels that had several backpacks on them.


    Sam had a weird thought when Toren mentioned that. Just now he properly realised that he hadn¡¯t gone to the toilet yet today, not that he had taken in much in the sense of fluids lately but the pressure was there. However, that wasn¡¯t the weird thought, the weird thought was... How would it be to use his Psyhands when in the toilet?

 Ch.004 - Aetheria

    Sam skipped getting a snack, even though Toren recommended it, but rather found himself in a toilet booth. He had wondered how it would be using his Psyhands for everyday tasks, like if his hands were damaged or just to make things easier. And usually, you need to go to the toilet a few times a day, meaning this could become weirdly needed at some point.


    Even though this was a public toilet, the fact that it was in the TAC headquarters in New York seemed to mean something as the toilets were extremely clean. Cleaner than at the hostel he was staying at. Sitting down to avoid accidents he proceeded to do his business as normally as he could, but for everything; rather than using his normal hands he used his Psyhands. To his joy but also strangely disappointing, it felt entirely normal doing it this way. Using the Psyhands was intuitive enough that they felt like normal hands with a weird reach and weight limit. The good thing was that this didn¡¯t feel weird and kind of just worked, so if this logic extends to other day-to-day tasks there shouldn¡¯t be an issue if needed. The negative thing was that it felt a bit lacklustre, parts of him hoped for it to be at least a bit neat or weird in a positive way, but not really.


    Completing his business he did feel that it was also kind of neat that, in practical terms, he didn¡¯t need to wash his hands as he hadn¡¯t touched anything in there. However, he still did so out of habit and it¡¯s rarely negative to have clean hands.


    Returning to the room they were in before he found a small line to the various carts of gear, so he lined up like the others did. Everyone got similar kits, a backpack, some simple tools, the simplest of camping gear and an armour set. The difference between them was weaponry and class-specific things. The fighters got a sword and perhaps a shield, the mages got an item that helped them focus ever so slightly, and so on.


    Before it was Sam¡¯s turn, he was pondering what would make the most sense for him to request, a rogue¡¯s kit felt like a good fit for him. Light weapons, some tools and gear like that. But he didn¡¯t have any skills in lockpicking or trap disarming, nor did he know how locks worked well enough to even try picking them. So he just needed some random bits and bobs. But he liked the idea of having a few light blades with him, and as Janik hinted perhaps some needles or sharp spikes for him to flail about if needed.


    It was finally his turn and as soon as he stepped up he got an uncertain look from the female instructor he forgot the name of. She didn¡¯t seem entirely sure what kit to give him.


    ¡°I... don¡¯t know what to give you, from what I saw before I think swords and daggers might be too heavy for you?¡± Her statement¡¯s tone lifted at the end, almost like she was asking him more than helping him.


    ¡°I think I have some ideas. Can I have a Rogue¡¯s kit? I don¡¯t need the picking tools but instead can I have some needles, sharp spikes and more daggers?¡± It sounded like a horrible kit at first glance, but he didn¡¯t care.


    Based on what Janik stated he might be good with just the spikes and a blade or two, he would need the experience to request something better later anyway. And you could rarely go wrong having a few extra simple tools anyway.


    She pondered for a few seconds before failing to stop herself from shrugging. ¡°Sure, give me a moment.¡± Seeming supportive enough of his ideas she proceeded to put together his requested package.


    Taking a Rogues kit she took out the picking tool package, opened it and went through it, leaving the sharp and pointy tools like needles and things looking like sharp spike-like objects. She took two more daggers from other kits and put them in his, giving him a total of three daggers and miscellaneous pointy objects.


    Everything was placed in the backpack for simple storage and transport, she handed it to him afterwards, and though she seemed to have an honest smile on her lips it was also a bit hesitant.


    Sam took the bag as it was given to him and thanked her, going to a roughly vacant spot in the large room to put things on. Having seen what the others did and at least halfway paying attention during the briefing, he knew how to put everything on easily enough. It was somewhat idiot-proof as it was just to put them on like normal clothing and fasten things until comfortable. Having his extra hands allowing weird angle usage just made this all that much easier.


    As soon as he put things on properly, a little System window popped up in his view.


    [ Simple TAC Armour - E: Defense 3 ]


    [ Simple Dagger - E: Held: 6 dmg, Psyhand: 5 dmg, (5 base) ]


    Further investigation shows that the [ Defense 3 ] simply gave him a flat low-level damage absorption of 3, so this seemed to be a 1:1 scale.


    Checking the math for weapon damage, with his own low STR of 3 giving a percentage added damage, but no math for Psyhand damage. And since the daggers he had with him had a low base damage of 5. Well, he wasn¡¯t going to one-shot many things, though the one boon he had was that where other people could only dual-wield, with his current Energy stores he could flail around 7 daggers if he held two of them. Though the two in his hands had considerably shorter range.


    He was again feeling a bit better about things, he didn¡¯t have the training or experience yet, but that¡¯ll come in time. And though he won¡¯t do the same amazing damage as combat-focused people, he felt that with what he saw now, hopefully, he could do something!


    It didn¡¯t take too long before everyone had geared up and looked ready, the mages were carrying rune-engraved staves, which looked kind of like a thick broom handle with runes on them. Everyone else got some form of more normal-looking weapon.


    ¡°We¡¯re almost ready, everyone get yourself a walkie-talkie.¡± Toren barked out as people were ready. He gestured to a new cart rolled in by another instructor, which had a bunch of walkie-talkies with earpieces.


    ¡°Keep the earpiece in at all times, and keep it on channel 1.¡±


    Sam walked over and got his like everyone else did, during the briefing, it was explained that normal phones and most communication tech didn¡¯t work, as there were no antennae, satellites or such in Aetheria, but walkie-talkies broadcasted locally from each unit, allowing any other unit to pick it up, due to this self-contained nature it still worked fine in there.


    He used a short while to get it properly fastened, getting the cable to run under his armour to not get in the way, but loose enough that he could move his head around with the springy-bit at the end. Everyone else went through the same process.


    ¡°Seems that we¡¯re ready, let¡¯s go!¡± Toren barked out before he started walking down the hallway.


    Everyone followed him and they soon found themselves in the plaza, walking towards the illogically massive tower in the distance. Toren quickly turned around and yelled at everyone. ¡°I¡¯ll be talking over the walkie-talkie now, if you can¡¯t hear me let us know so we can get it fixed before we enter.¡±


    Giving people a few seconds to process this he continued over the earpiece.


    ¡°Now, as we enter some of you might get a quest from the System, if that happens it¡¯s very good, we¡¯re going into an E-rank zone so just accept it and get hold of one of us, and we¡¯ll try to help you get it done. Everyone will get to try everything, so don¡¯t worry and just stay safe.¡±


    People nodded at his explanation, others were just getting stoked. Some of the people already here with friends started getting competitive and intended to do more of something than the other one. Sam was alone, but no less excited about it, he might be the odd one out as far as class went, but none of that mattered. Like many others, this has been a dream for most of his life, and he¡¯s finally going!


    ¡°When we get in range-¡± Toren continued. ¡°-you¡¯re going to get a window asking if you want to enter the Tower, after accepting it¡¯ll ask if you want to enter alone or with the group. Choose with the group, if you pick alone you¡¯re on your own, no matter what happens to you.¡± His voice sounded like this had happened before, and that it didn¡¯t turn out well.


    Walking closer to the gargantuan Tower, it looming tall enough that it was hard to see the top of it even if you tilted your head back, there was this odd feeling that grew denser and denser the closer they got. It was like walking into a smoke-covered area and walking towards the source, just for your mind.


    Suddenly, several of the group let out a small startled noise, it only took a fraction of a second for Sam to get a small window opening. It was as Toren stated.


    [ Do you wish to enter the Tower? ]


    The options were Yes and No. As Sam chose Yes the second window opened confirming if he wanted to go solo or with the group. He chose with the group.


    The feeling of comfortable warmth washed over him as a bright light blocked out everything around him, like sinking into a hot tub. Then the instant he felt submerged in the warm light it all faded just as fast and he found himself standing in a large area. In front of him there were grass plains for miles, in the distance all around them were massive mountains reaching tall enough for their peaks to disappear into the clouds. The sky was large, open and blue, save a few clouds gathering around the mountains in the distance and above them. Turning around he saw that they were standing at the foot of a mountain, a similar collection of clouds hiding its peak, with a village to one side and a thick forest to the other.


    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.As far as he could see, everyone else had also landed here and was just as amazed as him.


    The instructors gave them a few moments to take it all in, before speaking over the earpiece.


    ¡°We¡¯ll walk through the village to the other side, this is just to expose you to some of the people here, on the other side we¡¯ll focus on teaching you.¡±


    Murmuring about things they guessed or hoped to see in the village, the group discussed internally on the way. But before Sam could make up his mind they were passing through the outer gate. The village itself was nicely made, with wooden buildings made of logs or planks, and rustic or kind of old-looking construction methods. Most buildings were just one floor with wooden roofs, a few buildings had a turf roof with grass and plants growing there. Around the whole place was a palisade made of logs with the top sharpened, a simple walkway on the inside allowed people to look over the edge.


    The first people they saw were humans, some looked like Players, based on their clothing and armour, weapons at their hips or back. But others just looked either local or were non-combatants. Sam had read about certain Players getting crafting-based classes instead of combat, in a scenario like this they might prefer this world to Earth. Or so he guessed, he didn¡¯t know but materials might be easier to come by if you¡¯re actually in Aetheria rather than obtaining it outside.


    Sam¡¯s mindset and focus on what could be the motivation behind things changed drastically as they got a bit further into the village. The local populous changed, there were still mostly humans but now other creatures started to shine through. Sam noticed a few kobolds, small lizard-based creatures, walking upright on their hind legs with a long and strong tail. They had scaled skin and looked surprisingly adorable. The other non-humans he saw were a couple of Centaurs and a Harpy perched on one of the wooden roofs.


    All of them looked friendly, and they kind of had to be to live alongside the humans in the village, but it didn¡¯t make them any less exciting to see first-hand.


    He knew they existed, he had been reading things online, after all. He also knew that there were servants brought to Earth, bound to subservience through the System there were plenty of ¡®totally not slaves¡¯ on Earth. Though they didn¡¯t often walk outside in the streets.


    He had heard of the individuals from Aetheria who were servant-bound and brought to TAC for sale. TAC, or their side branches, handled the slave trade that had become legal on Earth after the Towers came. Though they were rarely called slaves, they were all non-humans. Sam had read about certain people getting a servant through a quest reward, found as an item or egg and hatched it, or just found individuals who chose to bind themselves to the Player, the System handling the contract and eternally binding them to servitude. They could be sold and bought through special auctions, though often at a high price.


    Sam didn¡¯t know if the ones in this village were like that, but if nothing else they looked healthy, so hopefully it was all good.


    After a while of walking, they found themselves exiting the other side, into another open landscape between the village behind them, a forest ahead, open plains to their side and a mountain on the other.


    The earpiece chimed in as Toren¡¯s voice spoke. ¡°We¡¯ll start with some material gathering. In the forest ahead there are a lot of herbs, crystals and otherwise. Those of you who can appraise should help the others with identifying good or bad things. Everything will be shared and split up as a group so don¡¯t go all apeshit and try to get the best things for yourself.¡±


    Tone of voice suggested this was not a suggestion, and had been a problem before.


    Earpiece chimed in again, this time it was another voice, a female. ¡°Excuse me... Sir.. I.. I got a... Quest... Thing..¡±


    Toren stopped and turned around. ¡°That¡¯s great, raise your hand.¡±


    Everyone looked around, wondering who it was, it only took a second before a hesitant hand lifted.


    Toren walked around the group and walked over to her, Sam was close enough to hear them speak without the earpiece so he got a little insight into things as they discussed details.


    She had gotten a quest to pick three poisonous mushrooms without getting affected. If she did this she would be rewarded with some bonus experience and a Random Skill Crystal.


    ¡°That¡¯s great!¡± The instructor commented, perhaps a bit loudly. ¡°The Skill Crystals can contain any skill, once unlocked it stays with you forever. Most are sadly very specific and perhaps a bit random-seeming, but she might get lucky. It¡¯s a good simple quest!¡±


    The radio chimed in again, and Sam now heard Toren¡¯s voice both local and through his earpiece, creating a weird echo feeling. ¡°Everyone, if you spot any poisonous mushrooms, don¡¯t pick them, let one of the instructors know and Samantha will pick them.¡±


    Most people nodded, and some confirmed vocally off the earpieces. Sam just made a mental note to keep his hands off mushrooms, they were dangerous enough from beforehand if you didn¡¯t know what you were doing, knowing there were specific poison mushrooms in an otherwordly zone where superpowered people walk about sounded... dangerous.


    Following the group as Toren went back to lead they found themselves entering the forest soon enough. The instructors split up into groups so it was easier to see what they were doing. They explained how to pick mushrooms, not taking the roots so they could grow back. Same with plants, you could take their fruit but leave a few for further growth. Most of the flora harvesting was learning how to not damage the roots unless that was what you needed, and how to leave enough so it¡¯ll keep growing. Gloves were needed for a lot of things, certain mushrooms and fruits were good for Alchemy but extremely bad for your sensitive skin.


    Sam could cheat and ignore a lot of this as long as he used the Psyhands to pick up things. The envious looks fueled his ego a lot. Parts of their backpack kit were a small removable bag inside for hazardous materials like this, it was a thick and solid zip-lock bag which had a dedicated pocket in the backpack.


    They continued, and the instructors showed them how to harvest other materials like Arcane Crystals, they were fragile but surprisingly easy to get loose from their cluster, but due to their fragility, they needed to be padded or packed tightly.


    Several others reported that they had gotten a quest, though most of it was simply collecting or exploring stuff. For the exploration stuff they called in someone from the village to take them around, collecting happened naturally as part of this job.


    As they continued a window popped up in Sam¡¯s view.


    [ A quest is available, will you accept it? ]


    It didn''t have any details, nor was he able to find out anything about it. Just a Yes or No. Not knowing any better and being told to accept the quests that pop up in the area, he did as instructed. He accepted the quest.


    [ Quest: Personally deliver the killing blow on 5 Goblins.


    Optional: Personally deliver the killing blow on a goblin chieftain.


    Rewards:


    Random Skill crystal, 3x Arcane Crystals


    Bonus rewards for optional step:


    Random Box - X. ]


    ¡°Err...¡± Sam started over the radio as he lifted his arm. ¡°I just got a quest.¡±


    It didn¡¯t take many seconds before Toren came over, looking intrigued. ¡°That¡¯s great, what¡¯s it about?¡±


    Sam explained how it just popped up, not giving any details, he had to accept it blind. Then the details of the quest itself. Also mentioning that the Rank letter for the Random Box is an X.


    Toren considered this a moment.


    ¡°Hmm... This isn¡¯t an uncommon type of quest to get in these parts, but it¡¯s not often a Level 1 Player gets something like this. The Random Boxes are also not entirely uncommon, not normal but fine. The X in this case is just to hide the value, it could be an E-box or an S-box, impossible to know.¡±


    He stopped talking for a long time, just long enough to get a bit awkward as he closed his eyes and seemed to think hard about things.


    ¡°The problem is the Goblin Chieftain, they are much stronger...¡± He stopped again and thought hard for a few seconds.


    His worried expression changed to a big smile as he landed a strong punch in his other hand¡¯s palm.


    ¡°OK, I think the two of us should be fine. I¡¯ll go with you. Let¡¯s go kill some Goblins.¡±

 Ch.005 - Goblins!

    Sam was somewhat taken aback, he had read the quest before he explained it to Toren, but at the same time, a part of him didn¡¯t properly realise that he would be the one doing the actual killing for this to count. At least not until now.


    One part of him didn¡¯t feel shit for Goblins, he had seen pictures and videos of Players who had recorded things in Aetheria and posted it on some video platform. But even if he didn¡¯t, it felt different now that he knew that he was going to be the one doing it.


    Toren changed the channel and activated the walkie-talkie. ¡°This is Toren Ashford, does anyone have the location of a small Goblin camp, preferably one with a Chieftain in it?¡±


    He stood there, nodding like he was reacting to someone talking, odds were that he was.


    ¡°Yeah, I know where that is... No, don¡¯t worry about it, one of the new kids got a quest... No, I¡¯ll go with him, that should be enough. Thank you.¡±


    Changing something on his walkie-talkie, Toren focused back on Sam. ¡°Good news, there¡¯s a camp not far from here. There¡¯s way more than just five, but we don¡¯t need to take them all, just enough for the quest.¡± He smiled as he started walking deeper into the forest.


    ¡°Come.¡± He ordered.


    Sam followed halfway on instinct, other parts based on the curiosity of the quest and experiences, but parts of him tried to make him speak out, have him not do this. It was kind of scary now that they were heading there.


    During their trek through the forest, Toren spoke with Sam, perhaps because he looked nervous, or perhaps just to make the walk feel shorter.


    ¡°You don¡¯t have a crafting or gathering Class, so you can¡¯t get Experience from just gathering, that means that your Telekinetict class must be focused on combat, if that¡¯s supportive or not I don¡¯t know, but if you want to get stronger you will end up in this position sooner or later.¡±


    They both had to look mostly down as they walked, there were plenty of roots or ground-based plant life that could trip them if not.


    ¡°So, I think you getting this quest this early on is a blessing in disguise. It might be a bit hard for a Level 1 to do alone, but today you¡¯re not alone. Your magic arms looked weak when we tested, but if nothing else I can hold them and you can use your normal hands to slit their throat.¡±


    Explaining this like it was just a random day, with the same severity as peeling some fruit, something in Sam¡¯s mind had him realise that this man had done this many, many... many times in his career. But then again, he was a combat person, big and strong, enough to be the main individual heading the training in TAC. He must know what he¡¯s talking about to get that spot.


    This calmed Sam a little. He felt safe enough, all things considered, being in the hands of someone experienced who casually said that he could just hold them for him. The comparative strength between him and a Goblin must be immense.


    He felt better, but it was still not enough to make Sam feel entirely calm, he was still extremely nervous. The homeless street rat in the back of his head was screaming for violence, the time he spent on the streets, fighting for survival, wanted him to feel big and strong, strong enough that no random monster would fuck him up again. His humanity was leaning towards the same side as these were Goblins, even in the best of cases that he had read about, they seem to be insane creatures who live for torture and murder, eating you as soon as they get the chance. Killing them should be considered purging vermin.


    Still, killing sentient creatures didn¡¯t sit entirely right in his mind. But... these creatures, they were part of the Towers, the same Towers who let the monster loose in his neighbourhood. The same Towers who let the monster kill all his friends and his family. A memory flashed before his eyes; a cargo-truck-sized lizard-like, almost demonic creature with six eyes, teeth larger than your arm, scaled skin thick enough to stop bullets and needing Players to handle it. His mind¡¯s eye replayed the scene where it burst through their house walls and stepped on his family like they were tomatoes bursting under pressure. The long teeth sank into his family members, friends, and body. It took a long hospital stay for him to recover, which caused even more problems.


    His eyes grew cold, he didn¡¯t feel the same remorse about the creatures of the Tower anymore. If anything his pent-up rage could have found an outlet.


    ¡°There, we should be cl-¡± Toren turned to look at Sam, explaining something but stopped himself. ¡°You... you doing OK there?¡± He sounded a bit worried.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡± He didn¡¯t feel entirely fine, but at the same time, he felt excellent.


    ¡°If you say so.¡± Toren¡¯s worries faded as he focused towards a specific spot instead. ¡°We should go quiet from here, they are a short distance over there, but they have very good hearing. Keep close to me and just do your worst, I¡¯ll do my best to protect you.¡±


    Taking a few steps, Toren stopped and turned back to Sam. ¡°Just a warning, they are crafty bastards, whatever you do, do not underestimate them if they get a chance to think.¡±


    Sam nodded, this was good info, something he somewhat already had an idea of, but it was still good to hear it from a professional.


    Sneaking through the forest was both easier than it sounded, and harder than it sounded. Everything was covered in plants, dirt and so on, muffling your steps. But everything is covered in plants, roots and so on... Giving off sounds of broken branches, and rocks sliding and hitting each other. All in all, it was surprisingly hard to be consistently stealthy. At least for a city boy like Sam. Given Toren¡¯s size, Sam was amazed at how silent he was, the man was easily two heads taller than he was and barely made a sound. He didn¡¯t carry any weapons on his body, which helped a little bit, but it was still an incredible experience.


    The instructor stopped suddenly and crouched, Sam mirrored it and found himself hiding behind a tree. He was waved forward and took a few steps to see what his protector was seeing. Through the forest, there was a small clearing, in this clearing there were dirt and straw hovels. More like dirt piled up and stomped hard before being dug out, finally covered in straw. Sam had no idea if that was going to be enough to be structurally sound, but that¡¯s what it looked like. The Goblins were half-men, mid-thigh tall to a grown man, with green skin, and sharp teeth and looked just as one would expect. A dead deer was being torn apart, lacking any good knives they just tore into it with their claws and ripped out chunks, passing it around. They ate it like it was an amazing delicacy, caking themselves in blood, innards and gore at the same time. Sam could count 8 of them, one looking larger, both physically and muscularly.


    Toren leant in closer to Sam¡¯s ear and whispered, very, very lowly. ¡°Find a straggler, attack weak points, best place is neck, draw the blade across, stops them shouting.¡± He pulled a finger across his throat almost to emphasise the recommendation. ¡°People don¡¯t consider it, but cutting with a sharp knife is like cutting a steak. Same force is needed.¡±


    Sam considered that for a brief moment, and he had a really good point. Steak and meat is... well... meat. Cutting a person isn¡¯t harder than cutting a slab of meat, not considering armour, clothing or bones. So he might not need huge strength or lots of damage, he just needed enough damage.


    Having three daggers was good at the moment. He could create up to five Psyhands and move them about within his 10m/30ft radius, or he could extend the radius up to 16m/50ft and only use one Psyhand. At least those were the numbers displayed in the info window about Psyhands and the Area of Influence. Or that would be if each hand could lift a dagger. The daggers he had were decently solid, meaning that they were relatively heavy. He felt that he needed three Psyhands to hold it and still have enough force to properly use it. This limited his range to a maximum of 13m/40ft, this mix would consume all his energy but would allow him to attack from afar at a relatively safe distance.


    All of this was what he gathered from just unsheathing a knife and lifting it. The range was just the simplest of math based on the numbers in the System windows. But it should be enough. He didn¡¯t need that much force, after all, and with three of the hands, he had a little force to spare, being able to swing it at weird angles with his Psyhands would make up for this.


    They sat there for a few short minutes. Sam tried to look around and find someone alone, but he didn¡¯t, so he waited for one to walk out from the others.


    Toren waved slightly to get his attention and pointed near a bush not far from them, he put his hands together and used it as a pillow, fake-sleeping before he pointed again.


    A sleeping individual, this was almost too good to be true. Sam looked in the direction of the pointing, he could see one! Some guidance and more perceptive aid had helped in this case.


    Sneaking closer he got within range without the need to extend his Area, this allowed him to place all five hands on the dagger for maximum strength. Floating the dagger over to one side of the sleeping Goblin¡¯s throat, he was a little surprised at himself when he didn¡¯t even hesitate to pull the entire length of the blade across the throat. He put all the strength into it as he did so the Goblin woke up but failed to scream. There was a staggering amount of blood pumping out of his throat as he thrashed in an attempt to remove whatever attacked him, failing to do so. The thrashing calmed down as the gurgling intensified before the Goblin slowly stopped moving. The whole process took about five or six seconds. He was still bleeding and it took a few more seconds before a little window popped up in Sam¡¯s view with the Quest details.


    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    [ Quest: Personally deliver the killing blow on 5 Goblins.


    Progress: 1/5 (+)


    Optional: Personally deliver the killing blow on a Goblin chieftain.


    Progress: 0/1 ]


    As the window opened there was a green plus next to the progress that blinked for a second before fading. The window remained at the edge of his view, something he could easily look at if he chose to but far enough out of the way to not be annoying.


    Realising that he didn¡¯t feel any remorse or hesitation in this case was a good thing at the moment, he decided to ride that for now. He could only lift one dagger at the moment but it seemed that he could do enough damage. He just needed to hit vital points.


    Crouching he noticed that one of the Goblins had reacted to the sounds, coming walking over towards his now dead ally, Sam prepared. He floated the dagger closer to where the new Goblin would come past. Even though the Goblin stepped into his range, he waited a few more steps, enough for him to get to a more secluded point.


    As he got closer, he seemed to notice something wrong with his sleeping friend. Before he could get properly into range Sam swung his blade swiftly across his throat. He missed the angle, it wasn¡¯t enough to slice through his neck cleanly. However, luckily it was enough to cut his windpipe. The Goblin wasn¡¯t able to shout but grasped at his neck, covering the weak point.


    In a kind of panic at being discovered, Sam just started stabbing. He couldn¡¯t put more than the full power of 500gram/1.1lbs behind the knife, but it was sharp. He went for the throat and though the first stab hit his hand, doing minimal damage, the second one made it through a gap and embedded itself in the Goblin¡¯s jugular. Twisting the dagger and pulling it out at an angle to maximize the wound did the job. The Goblin grasped at the floating dagger but fell over before he could do anything.


    The quest log was updated again; 2/5.


    However, at this point, it became a bit worse. The other Goblins were doing other things that kept them in the clearing, nobody even came to the edge of the forest. He wondered what the best way to handle this could be. He could launch some daggers at them, but even considering that he kind of only had two to spare, taking out two would leave four left as well as the bigger one. He assumed the larger one as the Chieftain, and since he had help, he wanted to properly do that quest.


    Taking the few needed steps back to Toren he whispered at him while eyeing the little village in the clearing. ¡°How do we get the others? If I¡¯m lucky and can launch the dagger at them, that¡¯ll at most be two of them.¡±


    Toren thought about it for a few seconds before replying. ¡°I think I want to use this as a test. I¡¯ll be right behind you and jump in if needed, but I want you to make all the choices.¡± He had a strange look in his eyes that Sam couldn¡¯t properly identify.


    A moment of consideration had Sam realise that this was a perfect opportunity. He had someone who considered the Goblins a non-threat to him, meaning that he could use this to gain the experience he needed for testing purposes.


    Nodding in agreement Sam took a few steps closer and tried to make a plan. He didn¡¯t have any experience with this, but he knew that one of a few things would happen. Not sure what was more likely from scaring them, getting swarmed or Mr Big-bad just curbstomping him. But he wanted to not let that happen.


    A brief thought back to earlier today, Janik had a few good ideas. Not the balls things, but going for non-lethal but incredibly painful and weakening. Eyes, joints and feet were a good place to start. Using the needles he got in the pack, he could easily use all five hands and just go to town stabbing. The odds of killing someone with needles were close to nil, but it would be plenty to fuck with some eyes.


    There were five of them left, counting the Chief. The most likely thing to happen if there was something to investigate would be either the Chief himself checking it out, or him sending some others to do it for him. It felt unlikely that all of them would go.


    He¡¯d create a distraction, then kick his plan in high gear. He took out the needed tools from his bag as silently as he could, the needles and objects acting as spikes. He had six needles and three spikes.


    Taking a few steps closer to the edge, he needed to have his Area extend a little out of the forest line, into the clearing. Taking a gander at where Toren was, he felt satisfied that the pile of muscle on legs could easily stomp in and take care of it if needed.


    Letting out a noise, literally shouting ¡®Bleh¡¯ was more than plenty to get their attention. Now he just had to wait.


    The whole camp reacted, stopping everything they were doing and focusing all their attention on the source of the noise. They just stood there for a few, long, agonising seconds. The big Goblin said something in a language Sam didn¡¯t know, but as the two closest stopped digging into the deer and walking towards him, he could guess.


    Hovering up the dagger with the needed three Psyhands, he used the remaining two to pick up needles. He hovered things around trees close to the edge of the forest, ready to strike as soon as possible. Using the Psyhands was as natural as using his normal hands, just that he needed the angles at times. Now, facing them straight on should give him the perfect line of effect.


    They got in range, stopping at the edge of the forest, standing there and staring, smelling the air, trying to hear anything. Sam decided to act, and take advantage of the surprise. The needles went first. On the right Goblin, he hit true, he stabbed him straight in the eye, the left Goblin he hit his face but not exactly the eye. However, in the following pained seconds, he got several more chances. As if he was standing close he did his best, just stabbing with the needles over and over again. He had finally done enough for them to consider running, he couldn¡¯t have that so he brought the knife down as fast as he could, landing a solid stab towards the right Goblin, hitting the nape of his neck. The dagger landed true and he instantly fell to the ground. The quest window was updated to 3/5.


    However, a problem he hadn¡¯t considered happened. Though the dagger landed true, it did so through speed and momentum, now the muscles and whatnot inside the neck of the Goblin were clamping down on his dagger, and he didn¡¯t have enough strength to pull it back out.


    Fuck.


    He abandoned it for now as he pulled out his second dagger, it started floating over and he was again ready for the next one.


    The chieftain picked up a stick from the ground next to him, Sam realised it wasn¡¯t a stick, but a spear. It was thrown in Sam¡¯s direction. He didn¡¯t even have the chance to react before it landed and hit him in the side.


    It wasn¡¯t enough to penetrate him properly, but it stabbed him surprisingly hard.


    Two windows opened. One showed a health bar and some numbers, the bar had a section greyed out, and the other a message that popped up on the right but faded soon after popping up, explaining that [ Defense 3 ] had lowered the damage by 3.


    [ HP: 32 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€? ]


    It manifested in the centre of his vision and moved to the upper left where, like the quest log, it remained available but not in the way.


    This was the first time he had been hurt since he became a Player, it hurt, it really fucking hurt. He had been stabbed before when he was homeless, and this was way worse. The spear was now on the ground next to him. It looked dirty and nasty and was not more than a thin stick with a pointy rock on the end.


    However, this did mean that he now had a spear. Pulling in his Psyhands to return the objects he held with them to his normal hands, he picked it up, needing all five hands to pick it up comfortably. This meant that he couldn¡¯t launch it back, it was too heavy. Though he did have his normal hands for that it wasn¡¯t the same.


    The Chieftain seemed to smirk, noticing that he had hit something. He picked up another spear and took a few steps closer before he sent another spear towards Sam.


    This time he was somewhat prepared, the long windup let him take a few steps to the side to avoid getting hit. He could tell that the Chieftain aimed in the same place he was before, so Sam was safe from the start. However, he needed to test something. He tried using all his Psyhands to redirect the incoming spear a little. As the throw entered his Area he did his best to push it to the side. He managed to do so rather well, though the spear was too heavy for him to lift and Launch, it was within his lifting weight. Pushing it to the side it hit another tree than the one it would have. This was an empty victory but a good one for Sam, the test was successful.


    The Chieftain stood there, waiting for a moment, smelling the air and listening. He shouted something at the others which had one of them pick up a rusty sword in horrible shape and give it to him. He looked at Sam¡¯s new location and, with a mighty warcry, charged!

 Ch.006 - Struggling

    The Chieftain came closer by the second, he knew where Sam was and didn¡¯t have much time to react. However, did have two handfuls of tools as well as a spear.


    Picking up the dagger with three Psyhands, and the two needles, he used the spear in his normal hands and threw it with all his might at the Goblin. His lack of skills had the spear completely miss, only getting a laugh in return.


    Having little time to form any plans, the plan became the original plan. Needles and dagger. Sam got to his feet properly and got ready to move when needed, and it didn¡¯t take long before it was needed. The Goblin was a natural when it came to moving in the forest, much more so than Sam was. However, he entered Sam¡¯s Area before he was within stabbing distance even with the spear. Sam got to work.


    It was hard to hit a moving target in the same way, since it didn¡¯t matter if the dagger or needles hit first, he just went to town with all of them, aiming the needles at his eyes and the dagger at his throat. The needles hit flesh but only his face, they both missed the eyes, and the Goblin shrieked from the stabbing pain. The dagger was going in a good arc to hit the throat but a sudden movement had it miss and instead drag itself across the upper torso, much too shallow for a proper hit.


    Deftly dodging the trees the Goblin closed the distance in record time, though Sam could move the Psyarms at great speed, with the objects held, it wasn¡¯t enough to get a proper defence or attack in. However, he did have normal arms and was intending to use them.


    The Goblin stepped in close enough and swung the rusty blade towards Sam¡¯s body. Having one dagger in his right hand he instinctively lifted both arms to try and parry the attack. The Goblin had the experience to act here and managed to move the blade¡¯s trajectory ever so slightly, missing the dagger and hitting his arm.


    [ Armour, Defense 3 has lowered the damage ]


    [ HP: 31 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€? ]


    The armour was doing its job, when they got these sets Sam didn¡¯t expect them to do too much, but against starter-level creatures, it seems that they did surprisingly well. Though he had taken damage it wasn¡¯t even a third of his health yet. He still felt good considering that he had experienced backup.


    In the brief moment after the Goblin¡¯s attack landed, it had jumped back to reevaluate the situation, in the same moment Sam had pulled in the Psyhands and went for another strike. The needles again went for the eyes but the Goblin seemed to realise something was afoot and moved his head in erratic patterns. It still meant that Sam managed to hit his face, having his opponent let out pained shrieks, even more so when the Dagger again missed its target throat completely, only grazing his shoulder.


    During the same movement as Sam¡¯s attacks, the Goblin had stepped in, which was partly the reason he missed the neck, and using both his hands he thrust towards Sam¡¯s body.


    Trying to step away and block at the same time, failing to judge the range of the stab, and not having the needed strength to properly parry it, the blade landed incredibly well in his right shoulder.


    [ Armour, Defense 3 has lowered the damage. Critical hit. ]


    [ HP: 26 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€?? ]


    Landing a solid hit, the pain of this was immense, enough for Sam¡¯s focus to waver. The Chieftan¡¯s experience allowed him to take advantage of this and he stepped in, dropping his rusty sword as he did so. His claws and teeth dug into Sam¡¯s body, this furthered the pain considerably and fucked with his focus even more.


    [ Armour, Defense 3 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 22 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€¨€??? ]


    Though Sam didn¡¯t know how the math worked for damage with multiple attacks, this was still a decent amount of damage for only a few moments. The pain was dulled by adrenaline and hate for the fucker who was doing this. His focus was back, if only for the wish to end the vermin who was causing him all these problems. Grabbing the Goblin in return, powering through the pain of the claws and bite, he used the dagger in his hand to stab him in the side. There was no way to miss this attack and the dagger dug deep. At the same time, he had dropped the needles but placed all five hands on the floating dagger, sending that into the Goblin¡¯s back.


    Both attacks had landed well. The Goblin let out a painfully loud shriek of pain, which seemed to have two things happen. The first was that the Chief let go of Sam and took a jump away, he was bleeding severely but still alive, and he wanted out. The other thing was that the Goblins in the little village came running, even the one Sam needled in the face before was running in. With a glance towards the village, Sam counted five Goblins. It was more than he remembered but there might have been some in the huts or around.


    The Chieftain turned around and started running. Sam couldn¡¯t let that happen and instinctively swiped at him with the floating dagger. The first blow missed but the more, if temporary, stationary part of his body was an easier target. The first swipe that missed was roughly aimed at his back, but readjusting his aim he swiped at his leg. This cut landed well and cut deep into the muscles of his opponent¡¯s calf, causing his leg to fail at the next step, falling over onto the forest floor.


    It didn¡¯t take more than a few seconds for the other Goblins to cover the distance, and Sam had lost track of the two needles he let go of earlier, finding them on the forest floor was not going to happen, so he took out two new ones and flailed them at the incoming force.


    First needle landed true and hit an eye on an undamaged Goblin, the second needle missed entirely, and didn¡¯t even hit his head. Due to the attention the first one got when shrieking in pain, it was enough for the dagger to properly land on the target Sam had attacked earlier. Managing to swing the dagger at his throat had it dig deep, slicing through arteries. It caused great pause and panic in him, causing him to lose his balance and fall over.


    [ Quest: Personally deliver the killing blow on 5 Goblins.


    Progress: 4/5 (+)


    Optional: Personally deliver the killing blow on a Goblin chieftain.


    Progress: 0/1 ]


    The quest log was updated, he was close to getting this done, but they were getting desperate. Their leader was on the ground, several dead and one grasping his eye in pain. Being just as adept as their leader at navigating the forest, they closed up the distance in record time, pouncing at the human fucking with them.


    Sam did his best to focus, he was on an all-time adrenaline high, slightly panicked but surprisingly focused. Three Goblins had gone for him and he only had the briefest of moments to act.


    Holding the dagger in his hands out towards them, just reaching out to make a point they had to navigate around, he used the floating dagger as a flying stab towards the back of the right-most one.


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    The dagger landed solidly in his back, seeming to have pierced his heart. The light in the Goblin¡¯s eyes dulled mid-step as he fell over with the grace of a sack of potatoes. However like before he couldn¡¯t pull the dagger back out. Not that it mattered at this exact moment as he found himself pounced on by the remaining two.


    Flailing his dagger around seemed to only nick one of them, not enough to do more than draw blood. Both of them landed on him properly and started biting and clawing.


    [ Armour, Defense 3 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 16 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€???? ]


    The health bar went from the normal Green colour to a disturbing deep yellow, orange colour. Sam had one dagger left and two targets, but the good thing was that he found out the Goblins were surprisingly light.


    Bracing himself he pushed them off him, just enough for him to move. He physically threw the dagger at the closest one, grabbing it with his Psyhands at the same time allowing for a thorough stab. The Psyhands weren''t the strongest but building up the blade¡¯s momentum did a lot to enhance the attack. The thrown stab landed in his target¡¯s chest and dug deep.


    [ Quest: Personally deliver the killing blow on 5 Goblins.


    Progress: 5/5 (+) - Completed


    Optional: Personally deliver the killing blow on a Goblin chieftain.


    Progress: 0/1 ]


    At the same time as the number updated, a little window in the corner of his eye flashed up.


    [ Levelup +1! ]


    He felt a rush of energy, like someone just injected adrenaline into his body, it came in a pulse and remained there. As the Quest Log updated, the little plus faded like before, but the word ¡®Completed¡¯ remained next to the numbers, that part was done and if he had the option to, he could stop killing them.


    However, the remaining Goblin didn¡¯t intend to let that happen. Getting back up he made for Sam with a pained shriek, flailing at him widely as he tried to close the distance.


    Sam didn¡¯t have any weapons left, he had some spikes and needles but none of which could properly win this. His last dagger was lodged in the chest of the corpse next to his opponent. The only remaining weapon was the rusty sword. The sword was tiny for a human, almost like a large dagger, and it was rusted to hell and back but it still had a point and an edge, Sam could attest to that.


    Reaching out with this Psyhands he grabbed it and to his happiness, he found that he could lift it! The Goblin was on his way in for another attack, but Sam had an idea this time. Through the attacks of the tiny green creature, he managed to grab both his arms. Sam¡¯s arms were considerably longer than his opponent''s, so he could hold him like that surprisingly safely since it was only him. The incoming flying sword couldn¡¯t miss and landed true in the Goblin¡¯s neck.


    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    The rusty blade landed in the side of his neck and severed his spinal column in addition to making deep and dagged cuts into his jugular. Sam was sprayed with pulses of blood as the Goblin¡¯s body went limp.


    The quest log didn¡¯t update.


    The last Goblin had already fucked off, and just took to the forest on the other side, the only remaining living target in the area was the Chief who had done his best to crawl away, though hadn¡¯t gotten far.


    Sam pulled his dagger from the corpse, using his normal arms had plenty of strength to free it, he then floated it over to the Chieftan and with much less hassle than before now that he couldn¡¯t move properly or retaliate, sliced his throat.


    [ Quest: Personally deliver the killing blow on 5 Goblins.


    Progress: 5/5 - Completed


    Optional: Personally deliver the killing blow on a Goblin chieftain.


    Progress: 1/1 (+) - Completed ]


    The Quest log updated again, to Sam¡¯s satisfaction as he stood, caked in gore in the forest. He relaxed and felt fatigue rush over him like a lead blanket, his body grew heavy and sluggish, even though his hands were still shaking and vibrating from excitement and adrenaline. Though he was extremely dirty and looked like he had been through hell, he didn¡¯t feel negative at all. It wasn¡¯t like he enjoyed the act of killing but he found that it felt more like a means to an end, it wasn¡¯t positive to kill, but it also wasn¡¯t negative. It was just a thing that needed to be done.


    The quest log collapsed, changing the text.


    [ Quest completed!


    Rewards: Random Skill Crystal, 3x Arcane Crystals, Random Box - C.


    Experience rewards: 20xp


    Will you accept the rewards? ]


    Sitting down his legs were giving out and he needed to relax. He didn¡¯t move around that much nor did he expend any mana or something that felt like it would warrant this worn-out feeling. But he had taken some damage and the rush of his first proper fight had consumed a ton of his energy. It probably didn¡¯t help that he hadn¡¯t eaten since lunch last night.


    Toren walked in closer, Sam could just see that he was pocketing a potion of red liquid before he got close. He could only imagine that he was getting ready to throw that at him if it was going bad enough.


    ¡°Well done!¡± He applauded as he walked. ¡°That¡¯s not bad for your first Player fight.¡± Looking honestly happy he crouched down to get on Sam¡¯s level. ¡°You took some damage, but I think your level-up handled that.¡± His smile changed into a strange pride.


    This caught Sam off guard, he didn¡¯t check his health or information about level-up as it happened in the middle of battle.


    [ HP: 35 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€ ]


    He felt oddly relieved seeing his health at full like that. The pain remained in his body from the fight but checking things now, the wounds had closed. He was no longer bleeding and save some light surface scarring he looked fine.


    A brief thought about the level-up process had a System Window open.


    [ Level-up


    Upon getting enough Experience (XP), the Player levels up.


    Each level-up grants the Player some bonuses.


    - Refilling of the Player¡¯s health and mana (Energy not affected).


    - +1 attribute point to be placed by the Player.


    Current XP: 5 / 20 ]


    Sam thought about a few things, like how he now wanted the XP to display near his health for easy access, and as he considered this a small transparent window manifested and attached itself to the Health Bar, it displayed the numbers and a dim yellow bar hinting at his next level-up.


    [ HP: 35 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€ ]


    [ XP to lv.3: 5 / 20 ¨€??? ]


    This made him feel surprisingly good about things, he had completed his first quest, levelled up and everything.


    ¡°I suggest waiting to complete the quest right away. When you accept its completion you get the rewards right away, objects just manifesting in your hands. But you will have to carry all of it back.¡± Still smiling he looked down at the tired, worn and weak Sam. ¡°Just a precaution to make things easier. If you need the Experience it can be smarter to just accept it. Levelling up refills your health, so if you¡¯re close to levelling and have a completed quest ready, you can get that boost during battle.¡±


    He shared some good information there. Though suddenly getting items thrust in your hands could be problematic in battle, if it¡¯s that or die from zero health it would be worth it. The idea about waiting to avoid the weight if you can afford to wait also made a lot of sense.


    ¡°Good tips, thank you.¡± Sam smiled back, he hadn¡¯t felt this satisfied in years, since before the Monster event that sent his life falling into a downward spiral. This felt amazing.


    A cursory glance at the reward list, especially the XP reward, when he accepted the completion of this quest he should level up again. This only heightened the amazing feelings.


    ¡°Now, before we get you cleaned up, it¡¯s a good time to show you monster harvesting.¡± His smile was still present but had a certain schadenfreude in it.


    The following training was not one he liked very much, but he saw the necessity of it. Toren explained that all monsters had a core, usually in their chest. You might get unlucky and damage or shatter it during combat, if so it¡¯s useless and can be ignored, but it¡¯s a decent source of income over time. Creatures can also have certain parts that are good for weapon or item creation, such as horns, hides and so on. Goblins are kind of shit-tier so besides their core and things they might have collected, they are not worth much. Not that their cores are worth much either, but in this case, it was more for the experience of learning how to, more than anything else.


    Toren meant this as a training exercise, he also explained that though the quest rewards were entirely his, due to the gathering split the cores would be put in the total pool for everyone. But to Sam, any income increased his survival chance dramatically. If his cut of these cores could pay for a single meal, it was worth it in his eyes. He went through the process of getting the cores out of all the Goblins. Though one of them had been shattered by the dagger through his chest, the other five were fine. The Chieftain¡¯s core was a bit bigger than the others, so he felt happy about that one, even if it would be split amongst the others. During this process, he also learned that the Psyhands interacted with other substances, they got caked in the same gore and goop as he was, looking like disembodied, vaguely hand-shaped masses floating about.


    Leaving the camp after checking it, finding nothing of interest, and collecting his daggers, they headed back to the rest of the group. On the way, Toren explained more concepts. Like how Experience sharing worked. In most cases, it was automatically shared by any group members in a certain area, split equally, but in this case, Toren had blocked the sharing so Sam got it all for the Goblins. If two, non-partied Players both fought a monster, depending on who does the most in the fight, the Experience might go to them. High-burst-damage classes could use this to wait for someone to do some of the work, keep the focus and just blow the shit out of a target, stealing the effort. This still happened at times and was impossible to properly track.


    ¡°Your combat style is a bit odd, in one way you fight like a Rogue, but you can also fight like multiple people. If you keep being that weak... in how heavy weapons you can carry, you might want to consider investing in some good light weapons. If you find some with invisibility enchants or learn how to cloak your weapons, you might become a decent assassin-style Player.¡± Toren commented as they walked.


    He had a good point, his MO in his only fight had been planning and surprise strike. If he could get some stealth skills, it could really up his survival chance since he can strike from a distance and weird angles. On the other hand, if he made himself a target and somehow upped his defences, he could get his opponents to focus on his body and strike from behind or sides. His options were pretty good, but he would have to look into what makes the most sense for him. More testing and planning were needed, but in any case, this Goblin fight was extremely educational.


    It took a short while to get back to the group, Toren radioed them and double-checked their location. As soon as they got there Sam noticed two things. First, the atmosphere had changed dramatically, people looked happier, more at ease and just all around better. This felt kind of good, Sam was not a part of it but joining a jovial group just felt nice. All of that changed as Sam came walking, their expressions changed into almost horror and worry. At first, he thought it was something he did but remembering that he was... not exactly clean, it made a lot of sense.


    One of his fellow newbies raised her voice, her tone filled with worry. ¡°A... are you... ok?¡±


    Looking over himself, something he hadn¡¯t done since before he learned how to dig into corpses for their core, he realised that he was way worse than he remembered. ¡°Oh yeah, don¡¯t worry about it, for the most part, this isn¡¯t my blood.¡± Sporting an honest and strangely satisfied smile, it only seemed to deepen her worry.

 Ch.007 - Quest completed!

    ¡°Do... do you need healing?¡± She questioned carefully, seeming like she wanted to help but being quite taken off guard.


    ¡°No, I¡¯m good. I leveled afterwards so I¡¯m healed. Just dirty.¡± Sam replied honestly. He was quite amazed at how it felt to have genuine worry towards you, it had been so long since he felt compassion that it hit harder than it should have.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s good, then.¡± She smiled with a nod before she returned to talking to someone else.


    This short interaction felt strangely honest and real. It was honest and real but it just felt like more than that. A simple question of how he was doing and if he needed assistance. He got help from others like Toren and Janik, but it didn¡¯t feel the same.


    The rest of the outing was surprisingly calm and collected, especially compared to the chaos he was in with the Goblins. It was somewhat as Toren stated, they might be weak... comparatively, but they were a problem. At least to a Level 1 scrub as himself. However, he made it out, with just under half his health left as well. The level-up came at a good time but realistically he lost half of his health in that fight.


    Sam reflected on what happened as he walked in the forest, doing his best to harvest materials. The first attack on the sleeping Goblin turned out great. The one that came walking in was also decent, he missed the first attack but got the next. The same miss happened with others when other angles were considered. Though using the Psyhands was incredibly intuitive, attacking from weird angles made identifying distance through depth a problem, at least to pinpoint accuracy. And when the Goblins moved around he didn¡¯t hit their eyes as easily as he hoped. All of this felt somewhat what would have happened had he used his normal arms as well, meaning he just needed to get better at determining angles and distance. Alternatively, compensate somehow.


    It all boiled down to him needing to train, and get used to weird angles, range, moving targets and so on. Something relatively easy to do with an ally, not something he had at the moment but he could make up something if needed.


    One thing that made the whole situation more satisfying was seeing the kid who talked shit during the testing, look at him with horrified eyes, this amount of gore didn¡¯t sit well with him. And since it didn¡¯t affect Sam that much, Sam took it as a win.


    As time went on, they collected more and more stuff, Sam felt something was a bit off. It should have started getting dark at some point now. Even considering if they got her first thing in the morning, the sun hadn¡¯t moved in the sky, it never hit its zenith nor was it setting. He knew they were inside the Tower¡¯s bullshit, but he expected there to be a day/night cycle at least. In a way, it was very interesting, but in another, it was just... not right.


    The earpiece activated and one of the instructors spoke. ¡°We¡¯re hitting evening on Earth, we should head back and end this.¡±


    Sam felt a bit better hearing that, at least it meant that they had control and that he wasn¡¯t just imagining things. Most of the kids reacted like they had completed a long day''s work, which was pretty close to the truth. They had been gathering materials for a while, the instructors had killed some creatures and showed how to get the important materials, like the cores or other useful parts. They had learned how to harvest the most common of things in the forest, at least enough to get the basics. Most of the newbies who gained quests had completed them, but nobody had accepted the rewards on the recommendation of the instructors, as Toren stated to Sam, they all did to the other kids.


    The trek back took a bit longer than the one here, most likely as they had walked deeper into the forest, passing through the same little village as before there were similar reactions. Sam got a few more eyes on him due to now being covered in dried blood and gore. He needed to clean up once they got back.


    Exiting the other side of the town, they walked to the rough spot they landed in, Toren again spoke over the earpiece. ¡°When we get there you¡¯ll get a window asking if you want to leave the Tower, just accept it and we¡¯ll meet on the other side.¡±


    Almost as if on cue the window popped up.


    [ Do you wish to leave the Tower? ]


    Selecting Yes, as instructed, the same pleasantly warm white light engulfed him and as it pulled back he found himself in a late-evening New York, not far from the point they got the question about entering the Tower.


    The instructors told the group to follow them back to TAC, they would debrief, and explain some things as the materials they gathered were counted. Everyone would get their cut in cash or into an account of their choice, the ones who had completed quests would complete them there so their first full day could be properly ended.


    Most of the kids looked excited about this, with happy and intrigued eyes as they got closer to the building, the happiest kids might be those in the same situation as Sam who had quests or needed the money.


    Soon finding themselves back in the large room they had the intro course in, they were told to put everything gathered on some dedicated counters in the main lobby. Everyone went through the process in a long queue as the instructors explained that this was for the first-day training and should be split up among the students.


    Sitting down in the auditorium seats, the instructors informed everyone with quest rewards to accept them now. It didn¡¯t take many seconds before a lot of people vocalized their surprise. Sam focused on the window about the completed quest and chose to accept it.


    The same warm pulse of energy washed through him, and the window explaining that he had levelled popped up in his view before fading to the side. At the same time a collection of items manifested from nowhere on the desk in front of him.


    [ XP to lv.4: 5 / 40 ¨€??????? ]


    It felt nice seeing that increase, and though we now saw that the needed XP to level up doubled, it sort of made sense in a progression style. He would have refilled his health had it not been for it being full already, and he now had another point to spend, for a total of two.


    The first thing that took his focus was the items on his desk. There were three Arcane Crystals, they were larger than the ones they found in the forest, and another crystal that was more rounded and seemed to have a faint light source in its centre was the skill crystal. The last item was an almost jewellery box-like container that begged to be opened, black lacquered exterior with a dull metal latch on the front.


    Picking up the Skill Crystal, he wondered what skill was in it, and as he did a System Window popped up.


    [ Skill Crystal: Plant Growth - E.


    The Player can make plants grow faster by channelling mana into it.


    -Not Usable by the Telekinetic Class due to [ Telekinetic¡¯s attributes ]. No available mana. ]


    Sam realised a few things here. First of all this skill was incredibly situational. Perhaps some herbalist cultivating hard-to-grow plants would like it, but it felt too niche to be amazing. The second was that due to the skill [ Telekineticist¡¯s attributes ] that changed interaction with Attributes, probably what gave him the weird Energy also removed mana. This meant that for any skill he might want to get, it would either have to be compatible with Energy, or not need any mana at all...


    If nothing else it made it easy to decide what to do with this crystal. Placing it back on the desk his eyes were drawn to the Random Box. His hand reached out and opened the latch. The box sprung open almost as if it were a trap before fading away in a dim light, leaving behind its contents.


    Looking at the pile of stuff left there, he saw what looked like some leather and cloth bundled up, three small vials with red fluid inside and what could best be described as a metallic-glass-looking lump of molten glass with blue and purple iridescent colours to it. Almost looks like volcanic glass, just with some metallic highlights and blue and purple instead of the darker colour expected in volcanic glass. As he moved his head around the internal refraction of the lump almost scintillated with various blue and purple hues. It was about the size of a golf ball.


    Confusion spread across his face, but as it did the System helped him, over each object a small window opened, explaining what he was looking at.


    [ 3x Healing Potions - D: When drunk, heals approx 50% HP. ]


    [ Simple armour - D: Defense 5. ]


    [ Material: Aetherium Ore ]


    He was happy that it explained what everything was, and also glad that he didn¡¯t need any appraisal skills or something. Might be because it was the System that rewarded these specific things to him, it might be throwing him a bone and explaining them. Surprised that the potions healed percentages rather than a fixed amount, it would make them more useful for higher health drinkers. Though they were still very welcome. The armour at first didn¡¯t seem to be that much better than the starting TAC gear, considering the damages he took against the goblins he would have taken practically no damage fighting them, so for his current level, it was plenty good.


    One of the instructors came walking over as he looked through the things, focused more on the Aetherium Ore.


    Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.¡°Oh, you¡¯re lucky, if you don¡¯t plan to use the ore yourself, TAC will gladly buy it from you.¡±


    Sam was glad for the info, but he checked what the ore was before he answered.


    [ Aetherium Ore


    Rare resource.


    This material has high magical conduction, often used in magical items or gadgets.


    Refining it will dramatically improve its conductive properties. ]


    Though he couldn¡¯t use mana, nor was he good at crafting, he could use it if someone else crafted something for him. But the promise of more money was high on his list, he desperately needed it at the moment as he was nearing broke.


    ¡°How much would this sell for?¡± His mouth asked the question without him having properly thought about it.


    The instructor thought for a moment. ¡°I¡¯m not entirely sure, but a lump this size usually goes for around $600.


    He reacted almost as if dollar signs flipped in his eyes. $600 was massive for him at this point, it was about six times what he had in total. He didn¡¯t even know what the price of everything else there was. Should he sell the armour as well? The potions? No. Those were life-saving and not something he should take for granted. If the fight today was just a little worse he might have needed the potions. The armour with a higher defence rating would also have helped him negate the use of potions altogether. He would keep those, but the ore he didn¡¯t need at the moment.


    ¡°I would like to sell it.¡± His brain decided for him before he had properly thought about it. Not that he had any arguments against it, but it felt a bit odd when his desperation just decided.


    She smiled and nodded at him as she double-checked something on her phone. ¡°Trainee Sam Carter, right?¡±


    Nodding he confirmed that he was indeed Sam. The instructor took the lump of ore. ¡°I¡¯ll get this appraised and added to your share of today¡¯s work.¡± She smiled at the end of her statement before she left without him needing to react.


    He sat back with a strange satisfaction on his face, he didn¡¯t know how much today¡¯s cut would be, but he should get at least $600 or so. He was going to get a proper meal before turning in today. Or perhaps he should get a shower and a change of clothes first, he was still caked in dried Goblin. His eyes went back to the Armour, he had a set of clothing there. Though it didn¡¯t seem like it would be everything he needs, at least it would be a better set to use instead of the TAC one. That meant that he could sell the TAC one as well, right? Was it even his to sell?


    ¡°Wait, hold on.¡± He commented at the instructor who was off to get his Aetherium Ore appraised.


    She stopped and came back with a questioning expression.


    ¡°The TAC armour I¡¯m wearing, does that belong to TAC or is it mine to sell?¡± His question was hesitant and uncertain. After all the way things were explained earlier was that this was their gear. But it was branded gear so he didn¡¯t know if it had any proper sell value.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s yours to keep. If you want to sell it we can take it back in, clean and fix it if needed and use it again. It¡¯s still functional even though it¡¯s used before.¡± She smiled back at him as she replied, he couldn¡¯t tell if this was a practised flat smile or if she was genuine.


    ¡°In that case, I¡¯d like to sell it as well, I got a better one in the box earlier so I don¡¯t need two.¡± He got up and started to peel the armour off himself. It was slightly stuck to his clothing due to the gore and goop spread across him, that had dried a long time ago.


    ¡°That¡¯s not a problem, though due to its condition, the price will be a bit lowered... I hope you understand.¡± Her smile faded a bit, almost like she was trying to persuade him to not do it now.


    However, he didn¡¯t mind. He guessed that there would be a baked-in cleaning fee, this also meant that he didn¡¯t need to do that himself. Nodding he continued talking as he worked the armour off. ¡°I also got this skill crystal I don¡¯t need, can you please get that appraised for me as well? I¡¯d like to sell it.¡±


    Taking a glance at it she nodded after picking it up, waiting patiently for him to finally get out of his armour. He ignored the looks he got as he worked on that until he finally got the thing loose, needing some aid from his Psyhands. Even though they were weak everything helped in this case. Handing her a dirty ass piece of armour she hesitantly took it, using as few fingers as she could to lift it before she left with less of a skip in her step than last time.


    Not wanting to goop up his new gear, he decided to wait to put the new armour on, his hands were relatively clean as he had rubbed them against wood and moist moss in the forest, but a lot of the rest of him was far from it.


    Another instructor came walking over after this was done. ¡°I recommend using the showers here at TAC before you leave. It¡¯s probably better than walking in the city like that.¡± His voice sounded supportive, almost like he knew from experience how annoying that was.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s a very good idea. I¡¯ll go find them and clean up after we¡¯re done with all of this. Is... Is there somewhere I can wash my clothes as well? I don¡¯t exactly have a shift with me.¡± Sam had changes of clothes, luckily he had been able to afford that earlier, he just hadn¡¯t brought any with him today.


    ¡°Not a problem. We don¡¯t have underwear but there are simple tracksuits and towels in the changing rooms you can borrow, just return them tomorrow.¡±


    Sam was incredibly happy, this place was so nice to him. Sure, it was probably a part of the cut they are taking of everything he does. After all the 600 dollars, before the 20% cut is probably somewhere around 700-something. His math wasn¡¯t great, but assuming just 100 dollars in difference, that¡¯d cover the tracksuit and facilities alone. And this wasn¡¯t counting the cut of the dirty armour, or from whatever they all gathered today.


    Feeling very good about today, he sat there and waited for the others to be done. Taking a glance around he saw that others had gotten some neat things from their quests, he didn¡¯t know what everything was but he assumed that would come in time.


    Half an hour later the instructors came back in a group, there were five of them now in addition to Toren, who were all carrying a tablet as well as a wallet. They walked around to the different students as Toren walked up and shouted for attention.


    ¡°Well, I suppose this is the time you¡¯ve been waiting for. After TAC¡¯s cut and all of that stuff, since you all were so efficient and good at gathering the materials, you all leave with a rounded-off $650. Not bad for a day''s work, no?¡± He had an expression which raised a few questions but mostly masked through happiness. Sam wondered if that sum was legit or not, but like everyone else the sum of money blinded them from questioning further.


    One of the instructors came up to him at this point. ¡°As Toren stated, your share today is $650. The Aetheric Ore sells to TAC for 700, the armour due to its condition only gets you 50, and the Skill Crystal nets you 100 due to its niche nature. So a total of $1500. You want that in cash or deposited to an account?¡±


    The sentence was extremely practised, the list done as she looked at her tablet, but all Sam could hear was 1500 dollars for just today. That was more than he¡¯d earn in a month at the corner store. His eyes almost blacked over at the thought of this.


    ¡°I.. Err... Bank... please...¡± He used several hard seconds to process this. Though normally the danger of today¡¯s work was much higher than working at the corner store, given the visitor he had the other day he was safer today... He couldn¡¯t get over how fucked up that felt.


    ¡°Can I have your card, then?¡± The instructor requested as she held a hand out.


    He fumbled in his wallet and opened it, his hands still relatively clean he took out his card. She used a device on her tablet to read it before doing a few things on her side.


    ¡°There, it should be available for you in a few minutes.¡± Without resting much, even letting him end with a polite thank you, she went for the next person.


    Needing a few minutes to process all of this, he opened his backpack and put the remaining items in there. He needed to clean the outside of it, as well as his daggers, but the inside was clean so there were no problems doing it that way. Leaving the room after many others had done the same, he followed the signs and floor lines until he found the men¡¯s changing room. A plaque explained the simple rules, a lock box with key and lock was provided for your thing as you clean yourself, soap and conditioner were provided in dispensers, and towels and clothing were available in there as well. In a dedicated corner was an area where you could clean gear and stuff if needed. All in all, it was pretty simple, behave and respect each other and everything was fine.


    Sam entered an almost empty room, starting the process by cleaning his backpack and daggers, which took a while but wasn¡¯t super problematic. He put them into a lock box, undressed, took the key, fastened its band around his wrist and with a towel around his waist he entered the shower.

 Ch.008 - Start!

    The shower was amazing, having access to what felt like unlimited warm water was nothing short of luxury. The hostel was... not that well controlled. The soap was nice, not the best naturally but it was nice, better than the bottom-of-the-barrel he was used to using. He used that shower longer than he should have.


    Once finally done he left the shower, got to his lock box and got dressed. Though he had to re-use his underwear that was hardly a problem, it wasn¡¯t gooped up like the rest of his clothing was. His dirty clothing was just rinsed off so he could use the laundromat later, at least he got the worst out of them before putting them in a thin white trash bag that was supplied in the changing room. The stack of tracksuits was simple, grey with the TAC logo on them. It was fine, nothing to complain about there. The exciting moment came as he wanted to put on his new armour.


    It was somewhat simple in design, which he felt was a good thing. A leather cuirass of sorts, with some tightening belts here and there, but kind of like a tightly fitted leather jacket. It didn¡¯t have pants or any fancy things like that and stopped just before the wrists. Moving around in it was surprisingly comfortable, though it did look weird contrasting against the grey tracksuit. An update window listed that his Defence was now 5, which felt nice. He took it off and put it in the backpack, after all walking through the city with this would have him stand out.


    Now he needed food!


    Having proper funding for once in his adult life, he decided to not overdo it, but still get his fill properly. He knew of plenty of fast-food joints around this area. Putting his backpack on he made for the closest one.


    Finding that he was running to get there faster, he didn¡¯t care, just getting there was all that mattered and he soon found himself entering a main-franchise burger chain. He ordered a burger and fries, paid without feeling regret and inhaled the food faster than he expected to.


    This process repeated itself twice more, to the point that he felt severe pain in his stomach, but he felt it was a good pain. He envied those who could afford this every day and could choose not to.


    Sitting back in the chair he finally felt the food coma creeping in, the kind he missed from his childhood. Getting up from the chair he slung the backpack on and loafed back to the hostel. It took a while due to his slow speed but he eventually got there.


    The stark contrast between the clean, sleek, maintained and pleasant TAC, to... this place... It was hard enough almost to touch. But he just needed to go to bed, he just wanted to sleep before going back tomorrow.


    Dragging his legs upstairs to the bedroom, locking his stuff into his locker he laid down on his bed. His phone was out of power a long time ago so he couldn¡¯t surf that on the hostel wi-fi before he fell asleep, putting it to charging he got out the TAC brochures instead. Flipping through the different ones he found one that opened his eyes more than letting him sleep... Something he didn¡¯t consider but he should have. TAC offered accommodations, they even had a cafeteria of sorts. And as fucked up as it sounded; it was cheaper than the hostel. Most likely due to the cut they took and government support, but even so. This was the last night Sam was going to spend in this shithole.


    With that final pleasant thought, he drifted off.


    Waking up the following day was surprisingly good, though he desperately needed to go to the toilet, it was more pleasant than before the Monster event, this was good.


    Getting up, getting semi-dressed he shambled himself to the toilet, as he sat there in a daze he finally noticed the little extra icon on his HUD. He saw the level-up windows blink up and slide to the side, but due to everything else, he didn¡¯t consider that they remained there and were there still. Focusing on them they collapsed together into a window.


    [ Level-up: +2. Please assign Attributes (2). ]


    He had halfway forgotten that he had Attributes that made up his existence now. It was the whole thing that made Players what they were, but in the speed and chaos, it just didn¡¯t properly land at the time.


    Focusing on it, the familiar Attribute screen opened, with the +/- arrows beside it.


    [ Attributes:


    STR: 4 ?


    DEX: 4 ?


    VIT:   3 ?


    SPT: 10 ? ]


    The down-arrow was disabled unless he was first raised by a point, seemingly letting him place multiple points and look at things before committing. But this did raise a question, what should he increase?


    SPT was the stat that governed all his abilities, but having more in the other stats was never a bad thing. Should he get something more defensive before he pumps more into his SPT? Adding power to his telekinesis could aid him offensively and defensively, couldn¡¯t it?


    He pondered this for a long time, reading over the skills, attributes and everything again and again. He finally decided in the end. The new armour was decent defensively, and the main reason he needed the armour was that his telekinesis wasn¡¯t powerful enough. He put the two points into SPT and committed to the changes.


    [ Attributes:


    STR: 4


    DEX: 4


    VIT:   3


    SPT: 12 ]


    The Energy and weight limit decided everything in his Class. Adding 2 points in SPT didn¡¯t only increase his Energy by 1, allowing one extra Psyhand, larger range or the ability to throw heavier objects, but it also increased the weight limit per hand by about 20% at this point. He still couldn¡¯t lift his phone with one Psyhand, but he was getting closer! The scaling math for the lifting capacity was his total Spirit times 10g/0.35ounces. So with two points in it now he added a small bonus! Adding that he could manifest an extra Psyhand as well it felt like his total weight limit increased by more than just 20%


    He was feeling happy. Though this life was dangerous as fuck, he got halfway to death in a quest given to him at level 1. However, he grew past that and hopefully would keep growing. Realising all this while on the toilet had him chuckle.


    If yesterday had taught him anything, it was that he needed experience. He could just go and explore Aetheria, but he did somewhat agree to contact Janik. Though, he was very hesitant. It felt kind of real as soon as he was considering sending that text. What if Janik was weird... He was absolutely weird, but what if he was weird in a negative way? Though he was the man who gave Sam the needle idea, with some training it could turn out surprisingly good...


    Completing his lengthy toilet break he returned to his room, packed his shit and set off. He chose not to renew his room at the hostel, he was going to stay at TAC for a while, and if he could get enough money over time... owning an apartment sounded like a fever dream but... perhaps it was possible.


    Walking the streets of New York with everything he owned in a bag felt surprisingly liberating. Especially since some of that stuff was Player Gear, he knew it well but was still stoked that he was a player, it was just so... exciting. But, now that the training mission was over, and as he didn¡¯t connect with anyone there, he knew the value of friends and allies.


    Before he knew it he was looking at Janik¡¯s contact info stored in his phone. No message was written, and no phone call was planned. But there was nothing to lose in trying it out, worst-case scenario he could just leave and tell him to never contact him again. It was a strange worst-case scenario way out if things turned bad.


    In a matter of a few seconds, he had written up the simple text and hit send in the same motion lest he change his mind. ¡®This is Sam, the telekinetic, I think I¡¯d like to talk¡¯.


    Putting his phone away he kept moving towards TAC, but within ten seconds his phone vibrated. Checking it the message was simple; ¡®Glad to hear it, let¡¯s meet at the Burger Haven close to TAC. I¡¯ll be there in 20 minutes.¡¯


    He was surprised, not only at the quick response but that he managed to write and send, all that within ten seconds. A part of him was happy, though, he didn¡¯t have friends and this was the first man who showed any proper interest in him. It didn¡¯t matter if the reasons were selfish, that¡¯s why they were going to meet!


    Speeding up he felt a little excited, his step a bit lighter without realising it. Making it there within the planned 20 minutes, he decided to splurge on a burger for breakfast. This time he felt a little guilty, his last few years had trained him to use as little money as possible, and now he was getting overpriced burgers two days in a row. One part of him loved that he could do this, but another complained that he was wasting money.


    By the time he was done with his internal turmoil, figuring out that he could treat himself this time, he was already sitting at a table enjoying a meal, waiting for Janik to arrive. With his duffel bag of stuff standing on the side of the table, he took the moment to skim through more of the TAC material, he realised that he should have done so when he was waiting in the training room rather than later. However, excitement and focus made things different even if that was just yesterday.


    Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    Flipping through the information pamphlets and booklets, there were simple explanations for a lot of things. Explaining how Dungeons worked, like how some of them were static and could be repeated, or things like quests, rewards, raids... and so on. The booklet was incredibly informative even though it just gave a simple introductory explanation for everything. But Sam liked what he read about repeatable low-level dungeons, it was common for new Players to take a few rounds in them, both for safety and Level building, but also for the pure experience of doing different things. The booklet had a few beginner Dungeons listed, along with their locations.


    ¡°Yooo!¡± A loud voice shouted over the murmur of the restaurant. Janik came walking with a plastic tray of food, almost spilling his drink as he decided it was more important to wave.


    Placing his food on the table, he sat down and picked up a few fries before continuing. ¡°So, how was your first outing? Did you get a quest?¡±


    The question and tone of his voice confirmed that he had indeed been through this himself, which made sense as most Players had probably been through it at some point.


    ¡°Yes, I got a Goblin kill quest.¡±


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s exotic. I just got some dumb collection thing, had to gather leaves.¡± He didn¡¯t sound too thrilled about the quest he was given, but turning it back to Sam he sounded much more excited. ¡°How was it? I assume the instructors helped you?¡±


    ¡°Well... kind of.¡± Sam went into detail about the quest, how Toren came along, letting Sam do everything and just touched on most details except the gore of things. He also specified that Janik¡¯s ideas came into play and helped structure how he approached things.


    As Sam got to the part of indirectly complimenting, and directly thanking Janik for the thoughts and ideas of how to use his Telekinesis, Janik smiled widely with an almost proud expression.


    Taking a bite out of his burger he replied before he was done chewing, speaking with surprising clarity even though half his mouth was occupied by food. ¡°That¡¯s great to hear! You got one hell of a starter quest but I¡¯m glad that my little idea helped.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, not sure if I would have thought about it myself. Although I missed most of the time, I think that the indirect approach let me handle a larger group than I could have done otherwise. If I had just thrown in some weapons and gotten swarmed, without Toren¡¯s backup I¡¯d be dead.¡± Sam confirmed, based on how low his health went even with using the tactics he did, had more of them come alongside the Chieftain at the same time, he would most likely have been super fucked.


    They continued to talk for a short while, it was mainly Sam being a little excited for his first combat, and feeling that he did well given that it was his first. Janik complimented him and built up the hype like a proud parent. He also gave hints and tips on what he perhaps could have done, and how he could have prepared if he knew that he was going into combat beforehand.


    ¡°You know-¡± Janik changed the topic slightly ¡°-I¡¯m looking for someone to enter Dungeons with. There¡¯s a bunch of mages with two spells, or other fighters like myself who swing sharpened metal around. But I¡¯ve been after someone with some versatility and, I think your abilities are surprisingly versatile.¡±


    Janik took a moment to take a sip of his soda, washing down the food in his mouth before continuing. Almost to give Sam a moment to process it. ¡°Not saying you have to join me, but I¡¯m willing to train with you a bit, perhaps go through a newbie dungeon or something, see how it goes.¡± The smiling expression he had at the end of his comment seemed honest.


    Sam was a bit hesitant at the straightforwardness of Janik. Strangely it caught him off guard. Not like he had a supernatural ability to discern lies from truth, his time on the street has given him a different view on reading people, but Janik seemed to be entirely honest about this. ¡°Well, you did give me some good tips before, and I do want to get stronger.¡±


    ¡°Great!¡± Janik replied almost the exact moment that Sam completed his sentence. ¡°We can book one of the training rooms at TAC and do some tests, get a feel for things before we find a simple Dungeon and give it a go, how¡¯s that sound?¡±


    Parts of Sam almost felt distrustful of the situation, he was used to being taken advantage of but as he analysed it, was it a bad thing? Janik was giving him training and possibly going with him to a Dungeon, unless he planned to murder him in there he should be fine. A second later he found his mind berating his paranoid half, this was a bad habit he had from the time he lived on the streets, expecting the worst in everyone. He was a decent judge of character and there was nothing negative in Janik as far as he could tell.


    ¡°Ok, I think we can give it a go.¡± Sam felt his smile widening, feeling almost strange for being not only accepted but sought after for what he could do.


    His new mentor and potential teammate sprung to his feet. ¡°Let¡¯s go right away.¡± Almost like he didn¡¯t have any intention of waiting, he took his plastic plate and took it over to the self-cleaning station, emptying it before placing it in the pile of others.


    Getting to his feet, Sam picked up his duffel bag of belongings, after getting that over his shoulder he mimicked the cleanup before they set off to TAC.


    Following the more experienced Player, Sam had to admit he was kind of interested to see what Janik could do. He had two swords and a dagger fastened around his waist, that was the only thing he knew about his skills. He seemed to know what he was talking about but that was the extent of his knowledge. There wasn¡¯t any need to ask that now as it would show itself in time, if it didn¡¯t come up naturally he would ask about it in the training, at least before they go to a Dungeon together, so he has a rough idea of what to fight around.


    After being guided around some hallways in TAC¡¯s building, Janik entered a room marked as Training Room 5, Sam followed into a decently sized room. It had a concrete ceiling, walls and floor, some wooden weapons on a stand in one corner, some ranged targets piled up in another, alongside some wooden mannequins, and was quite barren outside of that.


    ¡°Now, let¡¯s get some information before we start.¡± Janik commanded as he took off his coat and limbered up. ¡°I need to have a rough idea of what you can do before we start testing.¡±


    Sam explained what he could, his weight limit per hand, the fact that the hands, when soiled, looked barely hand-shaped but felt like a hand to him. He explained how many hands he could manifest, how intuitive and real they felt, the launching concept and all in all gave the gist of things for everything else like his range. He didn¡¯t go into exact detail about how his skills removed mana from his list, or how he only needed to consider putting points in Spirit for now.


    ¡°That¡¯s interesting.¡± Janik commented honestly as his mind seemed to process it. ¡°Your weight limit is pretty low at the moment, most daggers weigh more than that, but as you said; using more hands fixed that. Your range is also a bit low but I think you could do well in considering a Rogue-like fighting style.¡± He spoke as he walked towards the weapons rack and looked it over. ¡°First let¡¯s see how you do against a Player.¡±


    This caught Sam off guard, they were going to spar? He didn¡¯t hear any of that, he thought they were going to fight together.


    Janik glanced at Sam as he noticed his hesitation. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t actually land any hard hits on you, but stop once I do hit you. Just for simplicity.¡± He smiled widely, a tiny bit sadistic but in a friendly way, as he took out two wooden swords from the rack.


    ¡°Pick your weapons and do your best to defend against me. You won¡¯t win, just due to levels and experiences... And please no needles in the eyes... You can use something else, some cloth or cotton balls or some shit, and I¡¯ll pretend for now. I kind of like my eyes, right?¡± Chuckling at his dumb joke at the end, he walked away from the weapons rack, using one of his swords to wave in a ¡®your turn¡¯ motion towards it, hinting that Sam should get armed with training weapons.


    Sam did as told, though hesitantly. He spawned the full amount of Psyhands he could, all six floating in the air the instant after, as he grabbed and weighed the different weapons. Based on what Javik explained it seemed it might be enough if he just hit him, didn¡¯t need to be hard, so he could go for the light stuff.


    Thinking hard about this, Javik was a close combatant, actually getting close was dangerous, and he needed to be able to defend himself. In the end, he picked up six small wooden daggers, they were lighter than the real deal, allowing him to use more. In his normal hands, he picked up two bucklers, hoping to defend himself if Javik came close enough.


    Taking a few steps away from the rack, Javik looked pleased, almost like he approved of the ideas Sam had. ¡°Well, let¡¯s get started then. You ready?¡± He took a weird stance, at least it looked weird to Sam. His left sword was horizontal in front of him, his right was pointed right at him but held further back, and he had barely bent his knees a little.


    ¡°Y... yes.¡± Sam hesitantly confirmed.


    The senior Player¡¯s smile grew. ¡°Good. Start!¡±

 Ch.009 - Sparring and testing

    Janik darted forward at great speed, Sam waited a few steps for him to get within his Area, he couldn¡¯t do much outside of it, at least not with all his energy tied up in the Psyhands. As soon as the final step brought him in range, Sam attacked with all the daggers simultaneously, aiming for different angles.


    Experience and stats mattered, Sam could see that as Janik effortlessly avoided all his daggers. He swatted two aside, one with each sword, and with a twist of his body and a light sidestep jump, all six daggers failed to meet their target. Trying to adapt, Sam turned and kept moving the daggers towards his opponent, going all at once, a few at the same time in a series of blows, one by one. He noticed that Janik had chosen not to step in closer; he could have done so at any time, but he was letting Sam attack him.


    He was going to use that underestimating against him.


    Launching a few daggers at him, Sam tried mixing it up. To launch them he first needed to drop one so he had the spare energy. Simply throwing one at his target was enough for him to despawn that hand and use the returned energy to launch another. As soon as the dagger was launched he used his last point to manifest a new hand to pick up the dagger as soon as it was parried or hit the floor, at the same time he despawned the launching hand to return that 1 point to the pool.


    While doing all of this he started realising that the momentum he got from swinging a weapon, which allowed him to hit a little bit harder against the Goblins, worked against him in this case. When you miss an attack and need to redirect a weapon, that momentum wants to continue ¡®that way¡¯, you need to overcome that momentum with force, force his hands were lacking.


    This process continued for a while, as long as he was allowed to stand still and do this, he didn¡¯t tire, learning a vital thing about his Telekinetic stamina. Though that was a very good thing to learn about, it didn¡¯t mean that he hit shit. The wooden daggers were sturdy, but even they had their limits. Failing to stop their forward momentum in time, or when launched, they often hit the concrete floor and walls over and over again. Being parried to the side and smacked back and forth, they were beginning to wear them out. But he still tried, he wanted to land one attack on him, just one.


    He suddenly got an idea, and though he didn¡¯t want to hurt him, Sam launched a dagger, but right after he spawned the last hand, picked up some wooden debris and tried using that at Janik¡¯s throat. It felt safer than his face as he wanted to simulate a needle.


    A wide smile grew on Sam¡¯s face as the wooden debris landed on his neck, he held it there against him for a while as he stopped attacking with the daggers. ¡°I did it! I chose to hit your throat so I didn¡¯t accidentally shove wood into your eyes, but that¡¯s a needle in your eye!¡±


    Janik didn¡¯t look tired, but he did look warmed up. Having broken a sweat and breathed heavier and faster. ¡°Dagnabbit.¡± He was smiling and looked happy even though he ¡®lost¡¯.


    Sam took the victory even though he knew that at any time during this, he could have just stepped in and finished the job. Given the speed he was using, Sam had no doubts that he could have avoided the shields without issue.


    ¡°I thought you¡¯d have your hands full with the daggers for a while more, that¡¯s a good idea using a ¡®needle¡¯ in the middle of the fight like that.¡± He used air quotes with his fingers while holding his swords as he mentioned the word needle. ¡°I wanted to see how long you could go on before getting tired, so I let you have at it. But this one is yours.¡± He sounded supportive and didn¡¯t mind at all that Sam won this one.


    ¡°Well... I¡¯m not tired...¡± Sam commented, almost as if he had done something wrong. It felt a bit odd given that Janik looked like he had a workout.


    Wiping his brow on the back of his hand, Janik looked back questioningly. ¡°Not tired? Not at all?¡± He didn¡¯t sound like he entirely believed it.


    ¡°No, not really. I didn¡¯t move, and I don¡¯t use mana, I use some Energy thing.¡± Sam used a moment to explain the Energy thing in more detail, as it was a bit weird how, more than a pool of mana or resource, it was more like slots, or charges that were allocated more than consumed for later recharge.


    ¡°Huh... that¡¯s pretty incredible... So you can go on all day long, then?¡± There was a hint of envy in his voice.


    ¡°I suppose I can? I get tired if I run... as in my body gets tired if I do body things, but I don¡¯t feel tired after using my Psyhands.¡± As he explained this, Sam was beginning to realize just how amazing that was. In a different way of viewing this, one could argue that though his energy pool is small it is also unlimited.


    ¡°That¡¯s... fucked up-¡± Seeming to realise that it sounded like he was berating him, Janik instantly added more to his sentence, almost interrupting himself. ¡°Oh, I mean. In a good way. It¡¯s kind of fucked up but it¡¯s amazing!¡± His tone changed back to being supportive, making Sam feel strangely amazing.


    Feeling good about himself, not just for apparently having a good but weird bonus, the next thing was to find out how to abuse this somehow.


    ¡°But, though you can go all day, it doesn¡¯t matter much if you can¡¯t hit things...¡± Janik looked into nothing for a moment as he seemed to be thinking hard. ¡°If I was fighting you and someone else, you keeping me busy like this would probably have your ally fuck me up, so it¡¯s very good for that, but I think we should find a way that works for you if you¡¯re alone as well.¡±


    Janik stretched some of his muscles and did some light bounce jumps as he continued talking. ¡°For now I¡¯d like to see how you do with heavier weapons. Take the heaviest thing you can, one weapon is fine. I just want to feel it.¡±


    Though it sounded a bit weird to Sam, he also kind of got it. Janik seemed like he wanted to help, but he needed to know things before he could properly figure out things. Telling someone the math behind how much you can lift is fine, but when swinging and when momentum got involved, it would feel different. Sam had already learned important things in this sparring session, so anything more is just a bonus!


    The weapons rack was still within the range of his Area, he just floated the daggers over there, left them in a pile on the floor as most were damaged by now, and using all his six hands he weighed the heaviest thing he could. Finding that a wooden arming sword was the best fit. It wasn¡¯t maxing out his weight limit, but everything else was too heavy anyway, this also gave him a tiny bit of leeway to fight the momentum.


    Janik saw that the sword started floating and took a defensive stance, he wanted to be attacked and Sam intended to learn more today! Focusing all his might towards his target, Sam used all six hands to swing with all his might, there was no attempt to be fancy or work around his defences, just a straight up forward slash with all the momentum he could build.


    Since the slice came from behind him towards the end of his Area, it gave him a lot of space to build up speed. As the intent was to let him block it, or do whatever with it, there was no plan to slow it down.


    As planned, Janik had no problems parrying this attack. But Sam was surprised at the sound of it. The wood against wood didn¡¯t sound as impressive as metal against metal, but it hit much harder than he expected. Janik didn¡¯t seem too impressed but that didn¡¯t matter at the moment. Sam was learning valuable lessons about momentum buildup, even with weak force behind it.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s great! It hit much harder!¡± Janik explained, now that he had blocked it his game face faded and he looked like his more chill self. ¡°Now, hit me again without all that speed, just from around here a few times.¡±


    Sam did as told, using a more melee range rather than having a 20ft buildup made the sounds much less impressive, he also had to fight the weight of the blade more. This wasn¡¯t something that felt weirdly heavy or something, it¡¯s the same as if you swing a heavy pipe or 2x4. If you just swing it around and decide to stop the swing at its peak, it¡¯ll still swing a bit as you slow it down to a halt, or want to redirect it. Normally a swordsman would train his muscles to allow for this handling or pick a lighter weapon. It was the same for Sam. Since his Psyhands felt like normal hands with an ungodly reach, it wasn¡¯t that he couldn¡¯t handle it, it was just more that, while his normal arms have their weight and momentum which is very easy to leverage into moving something else, the Psyhands weighed zero, so everything fell on their strength.


    ¡°Ok, that¡¯s good.¡± Janik commented after a few strikes, making Sam stop flailing at him.


    Using only a few seconds of processing, and collecting his thoughts, he continued. ¡°I¡¯m not a pro at this, training Players, just wanted to get that out there but... I think I¡¯m understanding this a little more now.¡±


    Walking closer to Sam, he took both swords in his left hand, freeing up his right hand for waiving and moving to aid explanations. ¡°You have a great gift, I do not doubt that. But your problem, for now, is just lack of experience, not having a style-¡± he used his free hand to make air quotes when mentioning style. ¡°-the sneaky stabby thing you did with the Goblins would work fine, but as you found out once they found you, it¡¯s not smart to bank everything on that one thing. Like having one bucket of tools, it¡¯s all fine and dandy until there¡¯s a hole in it. You need more buckets!¡±


    Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    The odd metaphor made sense, sounding like a variant of the all your eggs in one basket thing. And though Sam had backup, in a realistic solo scenario of the Goblin fight, it could have gone much worse. Though the sneaky ambush bit worked surprisingly well, as Janik explained it might be good to consider other options.


    ¡°You can always throw other shit, I know of some alchemists and crafters that make shit that¡¯d put you on some watchlists here on Earth, but using bootleg napalm against Goblins? Nobody would care, as long as you don¡¯t use them against other Players outside of self-defence.¡± Seeming completely honest about this somewhat had Sam react with a confused expression.


    ¡°Now, something I want to try.¡± Janik took one of the swords back in his right hand and simply held it pointing forward. ¡°I will just swing the sword around, doing my best to keep it on-angle, I want you to grab onto it and do your best to fuck with me.¡±


    Without waiting he just started swinging it around, having taken a stance he looked like he was doing precise training cuts. Sam did as told, using all hands he grabbed the sword and tried to wrestle it away from him. Naturally, his meagre strength didn¡¯t have enough to take it away, nor did it do much. But when he grabbed the tip of the blade and started wiggling it back and forth erratically, the natural tendency for Janik¡¯s body to correct the path could be leveraged. Like pulling someone¡¯s fist away only to suddenly let go and have them punch themselves. This was a more controlled test of the spear deflection he tried against the Goblin Chieftain, and it felt surprisingly nice seeing it in action.


    ¡°Hmm..¡± Janik considered things as he stopped swinging the sword around. ¡°It works a little, but when there¡¯s muscle behind it, it won¡¯t work too well.¡±


    There was a lot of back and forth between them. Janik probed if he could do this and that, and tried to find the limits and new ways of doing things. Sam replied and tried finding out if the ideas or thoughts Janik suggested, worked or not. There was also the cooperative aspect of things, though Janik had the most focus on Sam being self-reliant when it came to that, they also needed to make sure that there wasn¡¯t going to be friendly fire when they went in together. As Sam levelled up and got access to stronger Telekinetic abilities, it would make things easier, but that was true for everyone.


    ¡°I think that until you get some more experience, your strongest angle is... just that, angles. You can attack from different angles at the same time, or just weird angles. Who trains to defend themselves from a dagger coming from the ground and ceiling at the same time?¡± He smiled widely at his half-truth joke. ¡°Had I not already expected it, your six-dagger attack could have surprised me enough to take me out. And even then, if you¡¯re able to just continue forever you¡¯d win the war of attrition unless I can get close to you.¡±


    ¡°Your idea of bringing the shields was good, a solid backup thought. But I think it¡¯s smarter to find your style, your way of being, so to speak. It¡¯ll make everything easier. But I think that can come later, the first dungeon is extremely easy... comparatively speaking. I¡¯m higher level than you so I won¡¯t get that much in the sense of rewards going in there, but we can use that to learn to work together, get you some experience... both metaphorically and for your levels.¡± He smiled widely, his expression hinted that he was very much looking forward to this, almost more than Sam.


    Sam raised a questioning look at the end of his explanation. ¡°What level are you?¡±


    ¡°Ah.¡± Janik smiled as he wagged a ringer. ¡°I can¡¯t say that. Though it doesn¡¯t matter as much when you¡¯re low level, it¡¯s smarter to keep your level, stats and specifics of your skills to yourself. Sadly there are Players preying on other Players, and if they get hold of your info... well... it¡¯s easier to fight something you know.¡± He sounded like he had personal experience with this, so Sam took it to heart.


    ¡°For now!¡± Forcefully changing the subject, Janik continued. ¡°I think we¡¯ll head for the first beginner dungeon, it won¡¯t be a problem for the two of us. I have done it lots of times alone but this is for your sake more than anything. We can work on a style that works best for you. And it¡¯ll let us work on our teamwork. Gear up and we¡¯ll go right away!¡±


    There wasn¡¯t much more that needed to be said, Sam was excited, his whole body almost vibrating as he went over to the duffel bag with everything he owned in it. The TAC backpack was packed flat in it as the contents were packed as their own thing.


    Using a moment he put on the new armour he got from the Random Box, it took some finessing but it it felt comfortable on him properly. He only had the three daggers, which he fastened around his hip, he used a fanny pack he had gotten earlier to house his random bits and bobs, like the potions, spikes and needles. Though it looked a bit out of place, given that he was wearing normal street clothing under his armour, it wasn¡¯t the only thing that stood out.


    ¡°Ok, I¡¯m ready.¡± Sam commented after he was done.


    The time that Sam used to gear up, Janik had used to clean up their mess. The training weapons were back in their rack and he had used his foot to somewhat gather the splinters and broken wood along the wall. He pointed at the door and started moving, Sam picked up his bag and followed in suit.


    ¡°You can put your bag in one of the lockers, just pick it up when we get back.¡± Janik explained as they continued walking. ¡°It¡¯s also practical, the entry-level dungeon entrance is within TAC, though we need to walk to find the others.¡±


    Following Janik, Sam was guided to the mentioned lockers, he found an unused one and scanned his TAC ID badge to lock it. Though this meant that he needed his badge with him at all times, at least he didn¡¯t need to lug around his bag.


    The next place he was led was through some hallways into a different part of the building, the signs pointed to ¡®Dungeon Portal 1 - E¡¯. Plenty of people were in the hallways, some were just as excited and heading the same way, whereas some seemed to be coming from it with tested armour, some wounds but mostly a positive attitude.


    Entering into a large room, it was heavily guarded. People in TAC uniforms with a higher quality looking variant of the TAC armour the newbies were given, were standing and walking around. The markings on the floor and fences identified where the portal was, which in turn was surprisingly hard to see, the area within the portal markings and barriers looked just like a heat haze. There was no defined shape to it, but like looking at something above something warm, the wavy light-bending effect, was the only thing he could see of the portal. It would explain how one could stumble on them out in the wild.


    A bunch of people were queued up to go in, forming a snaking line from a marked line. People were manifesting from nowhere in an area marked as ¡®Arrival¡¯, and once let in by a guard, individuals or groups went over to the portal and disappeared in a brief flash.


    Having felt the flash twice before, Sam was stoked to get this tested, it was relatively safe, based on the other people coming and looking happy. They wore the free TAC armour and some very simple, almost mundane-looking weapons, hinting that they were just as new as Sam was.


    Janik didn¡¯t say or explain much as they were in line, Sam assumed he would explain everything when they were on the inside. Given that he recommended being secret about powers, statistics and that kind of thing, perhaps tactics were also a good idea to keep hidden. After all, you can¡¯t discuss tactics without explaining what you can do.


    It didn¡¯t take long before it was their turn, an information plaque on the wall informed him that when you enter, you get an instance of the Dungeon, so you only meet the people you go in with. It had almost no restrictions so you can leave at any time, either through the system or just run to the portal you came in through.


    ¡°Next!¡± A woman in a TAC uniform called. Janik stepped in with Sam in tow.


    ¡°Us two.¡± He explained without being prompted. She nodded and Janik walked towards the portal, turning to Sam with a smile. ¡°Just remember to accept joining as a group.¡±


    Only seconds later, a window popped up.


    [ Do you wish to enter the Dungeon - E? ]


    Sam selected Yes, which was followed by a similar window as yesterday.


    [ Do you wish to enter as a group or solo? ]


    He chose Group, and the warm light enveloped him like before.

 Ch.010 - Dungeon!

    The bright light faded and Sam took a quick look around. The place looked like an old cellar, made of stacked stone, no filler or cement, just stone stacked tightly. It was grey and seemed slightly damp, the ceiling and floor looked to be natural stone much like being inside a cave. There were torches along the walls in the hallway before them, lighting up the place just enough to get a decent look at things. Though his eyes adapted second by second to see more and more, a minute or so should be enough to be more or less safe with this lighting.


    Behind them was the same shimmer as in the portal room, the only reason he could even see it was because there were torches behind it, being affected by the heat-like effect. The hallway bent to the right ahead.


    A quick test, something he realised he should have done before, was that he took one of the daggers out of the sheath and tried to lift it with the Psyhands. He could lift it with two hands now, rather than three, but this left him with less force to use it. Mentally taking note of this, he should consider three hands per dagger still, if nothing else it would let him swing and use them better. With the extra energy he got from putting both points in SPT, it allowed him to wield two daggers, using all six hands.


    ¡°How are we going to do this?¡± Sam asked, his body full of adrenaline.


    ¡°I think that with the gear we are using now, you shouldn¡¯t do too much damage even if you do hit me, so I think we¡¯ll just give it a go and see how it works out?¡± He sounded genuine, even though it felt strange to Sam for someone to be this careless about things.


    He didn¡¯t wait, he started walking into the hallway. Sam followed right after and to his surprise, as soon as he exited the area with the portal and entered the hallway properly, a window popped up.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Goblin chief. 0/1


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Goblins: 0/10


    Kobolds: 0/5


    Rewards:


    10 xp


    1x Random low-level crafting material


    Chance (50%): E-tier weapon or armour.


    Bonus rewards for optional step:


    5 xp


    Random Box - X. ]


    Just a glance at this he could see how people could do these dungeons again and again, getting a lot of Experience and some simple loot to sell. Wondering how much Experience he got from the Goblins previously, a little window opened up in his view with a log of sorts, showing what items he got, Experience sources and where he put his Attribute points. Everything seemed dated and all in all, it was a good log!


    The base Goblins gave him 2xp each, and the Chief gave him 5, for now, he assumed that the kobolds would give him the same, so 2 each. With that as the base math, there was a total of 35xp just from killing things. That would let him level up without problems. Adding the extra 15xp from fully completing the dungeon puts this as a total of 50xp from a clear. Now Toren explained there was a 50% split between team members, though the quest was individual, this would give him 17.5, rounded down to 17xp from killing, and with the 15 this was at least 32xp. It was simple maths. According to the Level up info the System gave him, he needed double the amount of Experience per level, so he needed 10 to hit Level 2, 20 for 3, and so on. Currently being on 5/40, that should almost give him a level.


    If this was as safe as it sounded, it could be farmed for progression. However, once he hit level 4, he would need 80 experience to level again. A bit dramatic so he would need almost two solo runs to level, the next being 160, then needing almost four. So it made a lot of sense why farming the starter dungeon wasn¡¯t always the best. Though he imagined that mages or skilled adventurers that could just run through the place, exploding everyone and everything in groups, could probably clear it super fast, getting multiple runs an hour. So it might still be worth it once he got better at things, just as a farming tactic.


    It felt strange, he hadn¡¯t played games like this for so many years, but the mentality didn¡¯t go away.


    Sam had been focusing on the math and spectacle of things, feeling relatively safe with a higher-level ally had let his mind wander. He realised this as Janik stopped him before they turned a corner. Having already turned the first corner in the hallway this was the second, pressing his index finger to his lips he suggested Sam be quiet. He did as told as Janik looked around the corner.


    Making a few finger symbols, first pointing at his eyes, then two fingers up. Sam understood this as two targets. Janik motioned for Sam to take a look for himself and as he silently moved to the edge and looked around, there were indeed two targets. The best explanation of what they were doing was a weird ¡®you hit me and I hit you¡¯ game, taking turns lightly punching each other. What fucking idiot creatures they were...


    They were a bit too far into the room for Sam¡¯s Area range, he needed to get closer.


    Turning around, Janik leaned in close to Sam¡¯s ear and whispered.


    ¡°Let¡¯s both go in, it¡¯s only those two. I¡¯ll take the left one and you take the right one, any way you want, just don¡¯t hit me.¡±


    Nodding in agreement, Sam pulled out two of his daggers from their sheathes with his hands, having them float into the air afterwards. They were stuck in there surprisingly well, so it was easier to pull them out by hand and take over with his Psyhands.


    Janik grabbed his swords as he calmly stepped around the corner, as he started running towards the Goblins, Sam did the same. As they sped up, the Goblins noticed them. Looking towards the duo they shrieked as they charged back at them.


    This was a good time to test something since he had two floating daggers and a backup in the sheath, he could try the launching mechanic. Releasing one hand on one dagger, he used the returned energy to ignite the throwing pulse. A dull popping sound sent the blade flying forward, darting safely past Janik but it missed the target and bounced across the stone floor. Not waiting to risk doing the same again he kept the other one in his Psyhands. Using the spare energy he put all six hands on the remaining dagger.


    Janik was incredibly fast, he made it to his target before Sam had gotten within his Area¡¯s range, having pulled just one of his swords on the way the Goblin¡¯s neck was sliced clean through before Sam had even acted.


    Coming into range he could do his part in this, the dagger was already en route in a long-range stab, as his focus was on the beheading of his friend, Sam¡¯s dagger landed in the side of his head without problems, falling over like someone flipped a switch.


    Sam stopped running and walked the rest of the distance, when he got in range he remote-picked up the dagger that missed but had to manually pull the other one out of the skull he hit.


    ¡°That¡¯s a pretty good stab.¡± Janik complimented. ¡°Just a shame you missed that first one, it would have been a good first strike if it hit.¡±


    The compliments Janik came with were kind of strange, they touched on the failure but in a positive way. The miss wasn¡¯t complained about, rather considering the idea behind it. The hit was good so that was fine, but it was still oddly weird to Sam.


    A little window in the corner of his eye listed two instances of XP sources, one for 1, and one for 2. If they were 3 per head as he expected before, it seems the System is handling the splitting well. The XP bar updated, as did the Active Quest window on the side.


    [ XP to lv.4: 9 / 40 ¨€¨€?????? ]


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Goblin chief. 0/1


    Optional:


    Goblins: 2/10


    Kobolds: 0/5 ]


    ¡°Oh, fuck... I forgot that.¡± Janik exclaimed as he stood and stared into nothing for a few seconds. ¡°There. There is so little XP in this dungeon, that I turned off the sharing. You should be getting everything from now on. We can do this dungeon a few times for your sake, but when we move up to the other ones I¡¯ll turn the sharing back on.¡± Sporting a toothy wide smile he looked very happy for Sam in regards to his own choice.


    ¡°T... Thank you.¡± He was a bit hesitant. Though this dungeon was low risk, especially to someone like him, it was still a very nice thing to do. Even if it was for his own sake, boosting up his teammate-to-be, he still felt oddly touched.


    ¡°C¡¯mon, let¡¯s keep moving. I¡¯ll draw their attention but I¡¯ll let you handle the work, I feel you need the experience more than me.¡± he turned around and entered another hallway, continuing the Dungeon.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    This process happened a few times, the next rooms were similar. Just one or two Goblins at a time, somewhat unarmed, and since Sam was currently playing ranged they fell easily enough. The few times he missed he could just pull things back and attack from their back, landing a solid stab or slice that way. He found out that since the system was based on numbers, he didn¡¯t always need to hit as hard as he could. A grazing hit didn¡¯t do full damage, but a ¡®decent¡¯ hit did the same damage as a full six-handed hit. This made him trust himself a bit more and let him try a few single-target encounters with three daggers floating, instead of just two. They felt a bit heavier, but it still worked surprisingly well. He even hit some launches after the first one failed, at least he didn¡¯t dull the tip as he feared he might.


    After a few of these groups, the Goblins started being armed, with pointy sticks and rusted to hell blades. The progress was also looking better.


    [ XP to lv.4: 23 / 40 ¨€¨€¨€¨€???? ]


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Goblin chief. 0/1


    Optional:


    Goblins: 9/10


    Kobolds: 0/5 ]


    Janik helped with some of them, mainly to run around and be a target, though it looked like he wasn¡¯t taking it seriously, Sam knew he was giving him the experience of doing the killing and learning how to do different things. Between fights he suggested Sam do things differently, to get a feel for the different ways things could be done.


    Coming into the next room, Sam got the first chance in this dungeon, rather than the little green men, there were different creatures.  Almost looking like lizards walking on their hind legs, with some vague anthropomorphic features, he recognised them as Kobolds, similar to the ones in the village. They stood about navel tall, compared to Sam. They had thick tails that tapered until the tip, green/grey scaled skin and a mouth full of teeth. Had they not snapped their stare towards the two Players with hate in their eyes, they might even have been considered adorable.


    Both of them had two stone-tipped spears. As they started moving towards Janik and Sam, they each threw one of them at each of them. Janik simply stepped to the side and avoided the whole thing, having it hit the stone wall behind him before falling to the floor. Sam was not so lucky.


    Trying to dodge it, as his Psyhands were busy, the Kobold must have expected this as the spear landed exceptionally well, piercing the armour¡¯s protection and landing on the outside of his thigh.


    [ Armour, Defense 5 has lowered the damage. Critical hit. ]


    [ HP: 31 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€?? ]


    ¡°Ah! Fuck!¡± Sam shouted in pain, though through all of them walking towards each other he found himself in reach soon after.


    Sending the daggers towards the one who hurt him, the lack of focus due to the sudden pain had him miss entirely, however even though the kobold tried to deflect and sidestep the next attack, the ability to move it in the air allowed the second dagger to land true in his chest. Not even a second later, the second fell to Janik¡¯s blade, having a deep gash in his chest.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Goblin chief. 0/1


    Optional:


    Goblins: 9/10


    Kobolds: 2/5 ]


    [ Experience gained: +6. ]


    [ XP to lv.4: 29 / 40 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€?? ]


    Relaxing a little, he was glad for two reasons. First of all the fuckers who threw the spears were now dead, the second thing was that the Kobolds seemed to give three XP each, a little bit more than the Goblins. Though, based on the damage done they warranted that.


    ¡°Crafty little fuckers, aren¡¯t they.¡± Janik smiled at him, not seeming phased that he had taken damage and was bleeding slightly. ¡°Kobolds are good in groups, as long as there are two or more of them it seems they get some weird bonus or something. If it¡¯s just one they tend to give up or run away.¡±


    This was good info, not that knowing it sooner would have helped him, but he would have liked to know these things beforehand.


    The next room was almost a little cheating, it was much smaller and the single Kobold in there who was eating some mushrooms, didn¡¯t notice Sam before he was within the Area¡¯s reach, a swift dagger across the throat and it was over. The prompt listed +3 XP and +1 kill for the log.


    Coming to a larger room, peering around the corner this time they could see that this room did not have any exits, save the one they were looking through. There was one Chief with a rusty small sword, one goblin without any weapons and two Kobolds with only one spear each. A true test of the person, or group, after coming this far.


    Having the chance to discuss their plan through hushed whispers, Sam wondered how they would be doing this.


    ¡°I think we should do it as realistically as possible,¡± Janik replied. ¡°Though this isn¡¯t as much of a challenge as it seems, I think we should treat this as if it was level-appropriate and dangerous. Take out as many as we can through the opening moment, and go in proper from there.¡±


    Sam couldn¡¯t argue against his point. And he was slightly in luck. As one of the Kobolds was walking around in the room, if they were patient, he could reach him by extending his Area, letting them get one of them before they even entered.


    They just stood there, waiting for a while. Janik didn¡¯t question why they were waiting so either he already guessed his plan, or he was letting Sam take his time. Either way, he didn¡¯t rush it and was patient as well.


    As the kobold finally entered Sam¡¯s extended area, he sent a blade flying, grasping it with his Psyhands he managed to hit his throat. Barely cut deep enough to hit an artery. The lizard grabbed his throat as he coughed through gurgling, falling over and bleeding out. This confused the room, the Chief said something in an unknown language which had the Goblin run forward and investigate.


    This was perfect.


    The Goblin came into range as he inspected his dead ally, as he stepped in the blood and inhaled for a shout, the same dagger returned to repeat the event, deeply slicing through his throat. The following events mimicked that of his scaled friend.


    With one Kobold and one Goblin taken out, there was just the Chief and Kobold left. The quest log and XP updated. 37/40 XP, and only the Chief and one Kobold remain in the quest.


    The two remaining monsters seemed to act in unison, they darted forwards and ran towards the hallway leading to the corner the duo was hiding in. Seeming to get that there was something there.


    ¡°You focus on the boss,¡± Janik commented as he waited until they neared the corner. As they did he sprung out, heading for the Kobold.


    Sam couldn¡¯t -not- do anything, he tried sending out a dagger at maximum range, as it worked with the others. The Chieftain seemed to see it coming and stepped to the side just in time to dodge. The following knife aimed for his chest, a larger target. Sadly for Sam, it had the same result. Though rusted to hell and back, the chief¡¯s sword was enough to attack and parry the incoming blade, having it miss its target.


    Due to the angle of where he was compared to where Sam was looking from, the Chief now saw the hiding human. Seeming to ignore the swordwielder he made for Sam. Pulling back his two daggers he aimed them at the Goblin¡¯s back, the angle should be illogical enough that he wouldn¡¯t see it coming. Lack of experience with those kinds of angles had Sam, yet again, miss his target. But seeing how he missed allowed him to adjust properly and land the dagger in his back. This caused significant damage to him, but he still stood upright, a few coughs of blood before his eyes blacked in rage and with a gargling scream he ran for Sam.


    Pulling his last dagger from its sheath, he grabbed it with three Psyhands and sent that for the Goblin¡¯s chest, at the same time he turned the dagger that just missed him as well.


    They both missed.


    In the panicky moment of seeing this damaged, gargling and fucking livid Goblin charging for him, hellbent on murdering his assailant, Sam flinched.


    The chief had no weapons, but that didn¡¯t stop him from jumping and attacking him with his claws and aiming to bite him. Janik stood there, seemingly ready but he currently let it happen, he must know something Sam didn¡¯t.


    A flashback of the damage the last chief did to him, he steeled himself, pulling in both daggers he made another attack at his assailant. But at the same moment, the goblin landed his two claws.


    [ Armour, Defense 5 has negated the damage. ]


    [ Armour, Defense 5 has negated the damage. ]


    A very brief respite gave him a single breath of relief before the Goblin used his grasp, though not doing any damage it still held onto him, to pull himself in for a bite.

 Ch.011 - More Dungeons!

    The Goblin Chief¡¯s bite landed on Sam¡¯s shoulder, its dirty teeth sinking in deep.


    [ Armour, Defense 5 has lowered the damage. Critical hit. ]


    [ HP: 22 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€¨€??? ]


    Sam briefly considered that this was a lot of damage for a bite, especially considering that he had better armour than before. Though this didn¡¯t stop him from doing what he planned, the daggers were both returning to him as the Goblin launched his bite, and to his gratification; both daggers landed!


    As the two daggers sunk into the chieftain''s back, the light left his eyes and he let go of Sam, falling over completely limp.


    The log listed two sources of XP, one for the Kobold and one for the Chieftain, at the same time the fancy filigree System window popped up.


    [ Level up! ]


    [ XP to lv.5: 05 / 80 ???????? ]


    He could not only see his health bar refilling, but he felt refreshed, all the pain from the spear wound and his shoulder faded. Though it was a bit sad to see the XP bar back down, and the needed value now doubled, he felt great!


    [ Congratulations on completing the Dungeon! ]


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Goblin chief. 1/1


    Optional:


    Goblins: 10/10


    Kobolds: 5/5 ]


    [ Rewards:


    10xp


    1x Aether Crystal


    Bonus rewards


    5xp


    Random Box - E. ]


    Sam felt a bit annoyed that he didn¡¯t make the 50% chance for the weapon or armour, but he was still happy as the XP bar updated itself with the bonus XP at the same time as the Random Box and Aether Crystal auto-manifested in his hands.


    A brief moment of confusion spread on his face had Janik comment.


    ¡°Dungeon completion quests auto-accept, it¡¯s a part of the Dungeon so it sort of completes it before you leave. Sadly, I have heard of PvP¡¯ers using this moment to betray other Players. After all, they can just kill other players, take their stuff and claim that they died in the dungeon. No way to confirm or deny anything so...¡± He didn¡¯t sound too happy about this, but luckily it didn¡¯t seem like he spoke from personal experience.


    Sam was a bit irked at this, not being able to choose when to deliver this quest made the item thing a bit problematic. He also saw how it could be abused. Someone knowing the timing could just wait for the items to manifest and then shank their target... It made sense if you were going that path but a horrible thing to do. With enough shit around with the Towers and monsters, why fight each other?


    Sighing he decided to worry about that later. For now, he had Janik with him, and based on what he had seen he was much, much more experienced. And if he was training Sam to be his ally, it seemed like he had a good mentor. He decided to open the Random box right away, rather than carrying it around or putting it in a backpack, it was just easier, as long as it didn¡¯t spew out a bunch of lead or something.


    Putting it on the floor he triggered it, the box sprung open and in a flash of light, it disappeared, leaving behind it two vials and a dagger. Like last time the System automatically displayed the information about the newly obtained items.


    [ 1x Healing Potion - E: When drunk, heals approx 10% HP. ]


    [ 1x Mana Potion - E: When drunk, restores approx 10% Mana. ]


    [ Simple Dagger - E: Base Damage 5. ]


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s a decent turnout.¡± Janik commented as he looked at the items from the box. ¡°Never underestimate the value of potions, even the low-ranked ones.¡± He smiled as if he spoke from personal experience this time.


    Though he didn¡¯t feel the need for the mana potion, Sam briefly wondered what to do but decided to pocket it for now. Though he had already explained that he didn¡¯t use mana, he could sell it later when they sell the spoils from the repeated runs. As they planned to run this several times. With his health low earlier he also wondered if it would be smarter to heal up before going back in, but as the Level Up handled that, this wasn¡¯t exactly a problem any more.


    ¡°So, you want to go again?¡± Janik smiled as he headed for the haze-like portal at the end of the room they were in, again only barely noticeable due to the torches behind it.


    Sam nodded.


    They used a moment to make sure they had everything with them, especially for Sam and his daggers, it would be a shame if he forgot them lodged in the Goblin and just left without his weapons... That would be a horrible habit to have later on when he hopefully gets better items.


    Leaving through the portal, he got a similar popup, this time asking if he wanted to leave the Dungeon. Accepting it engulfed him in the same bright light and he found himself standing in the marked landing area in the same room they queued to enter not long ago. They were instructed to leave the landing area right away, to avoid problems with other arrivals. They walked out of the area but instead of leaving the room they just went straight back to the entry queue, as they waited for their turn several others did the same as they came back from the portal, some left but some just re-joined the line to get back in.


    Waiting for their turn Sam wondered if he should keep his Attribute points ready or just use them right away. The bonus of putting them into SPT right away was fine but didn¡¯t do much more than adding to the weight limit of his Psyhands, every other point gave him one extra point in Energy, which was what he wanted. But if he chose to wait until he had two points, he could emergency add a point elsewhere if it came to that. For now, he chose to wait and ask Janik once they got back inside.


    The wait didn¡¯t take too long, it was just a queue to get in, which was a quick process. It was just for the organization aspect of things more than anything. So it quickly turned their turn. Like before they stepped in, accepted the System prompt and chose the group, finding themselves back in the starting room of the Dungeon.


    ¡°I have a question before we go.¡± Sam started to get his attention before they rushed in. As Janik turned to face him he continued. ¡°Should I allocate my attribute point right away for a minor bonus, or wait until I have two points for a proper bonus, just in case I need an emergency boost for something?¡±


    ¡°Hmm...¡± Janik thought about it for a moment. ¡°It¡¯s hard to say, to be honest. For the starting dungeons I don¡¯t think it matters, I used mine right away but for higher ones where there is actual danger, it¡¯s not a bad thought to have. Unless you need something ASAP, you have the option of suddenly increasing your health or something. I¡¯d say it depends on the situation.¡±


    Sam wasn¡¯t too happy about that answer. Though it did validate his original thought as at least decent in some cases, he didn¡¯t get an answer saying that one is better than the other.


    For now, he decided to wait, he didn¡¯t need any specific stat increases, and even if he put it in SPT, the weight limit bonus wouldn¡¯t let him wield more daggers anyway, so it could wait until he got two at minimum.


    They stepped into the Dungeon hallway properly and the same quest window popped up, listing the same quest description, points to complete and rewards. Quick math confirmed that the whole dungeon gave 55xp if he did everything, compared to the 15xp of just rushing the boss and getting out of here as fast as possible.


    This run was faster and smoother than the last. The fact that the Goblins and Kobolds were at the same spots, had the same number of enemies and used the same tactics made this a clear newbie dungeon. It made testing out things, getting used to other things and all in all, gaining experience in both senses of the word a breeze. A perfect testing ground for new Players. Partying up with other newbies would make this an easy-to-overcome dungeon, and probably a good one for future testing of new things.


    Another full clear didn¡¯t take as long as the last time, about half an hour or so to make sure it was done properly. Only getting hit once this round made it feel like improvement already, and once it was done another 55xp, no bonus weapon, one Aether crystal and a Random Box - E which contained only a single mana potion this time. The only hit he got did damage him a tiny bit, but it was small enough that they just repeated the process of exiting, queueing up and going back in.


    Since Janik had activated the setting where he didn¡¯t receive any XP, he was a massive metaphorical parachute. Though it would have gone faster if he helped, or just did the runs himself, he was adamant that he would only help if needed so Sam could build as much experience as possible.


    The next two runs were the same, though he avoided taking damage these rounds. Though he got hit, technically, the armour handled it fine and he avoided taking any health damage. The random chance for a weapon kicked in this time, but he got a short sword which was too heavy for him to use anyway. It went into the metaphorical selling pile. The Random Boxes contained one health potion and two Aether Crystals in total. He did level up the first run, gaining him another free point and full health had he taken damage. The last jump in needed XP was from 40 to 80, which now again doubled needing 160. It was going to go slower and slower.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    He put both points into SPT, increasing the weight he could carry as well as gaining him 1 extra Energy. This combo, like last time, gave him a decent boost in the total weight he could wield, in turn, this let him wield three daggers if he wanted, though without much force behind them. Testing in the second round had this still prove to be a good tactic. Though he couldn¡¯t move them around as fast or as agile due to said lacking force, he had one extra blade adding to his damage or defensive potential.


    It was clear that even though this dungeon was beginning to become lacking even for Sam¡¯s skill, it was a good place to farm pocket change as though one Aether Crystal of this low rank only sold for $20-something, at this point he had four of them, meaning that those four alone gave him $60+, that¡¯s not counting the Sword or potions that sold for more. So it wasn¡¯t a bad place to make money. It wasn¡¯t the same values as he had gotten yesterday, but most of that was due to rarer items.


    Sam wasn¡¯t complaining, all of this was pretty good given that a run, taking their time to be safe, only took about half an hour. Not counting the first run which took a bit longer they had only been at it an hour or so. Janik made sure that Sam didn¡¯t fall into habit and forced him to try different things at times. Perhaps not using daggers and using the short-sword as the only weapon, only using one dagger, only using the Launch ability and so on. Even making sure he could do things by hand, without using his abilities, just in case that was needed. It felt very different being that kind of close to the action, but it was a good experience to have.


    Though the non-power run took more time and caused him to take damage, the following level-up handled that without the need for any potion or healing usage.


    They ran many more times, each run becoming more and more smooth, taking less and less time, only stopping for lunch and snack breaks. Sam kind of forgot how many runs they did and didn¡¯t bother with the math, most of the day had passed and it was evening. The results were amazing, though. Sam had consistently put all his points into SPT, as it gained him the most bang for the buck at the moment. Though he was wondering if he should boost his health or something, at the moment it didn¡¯t seem entirely necessary.


    [ Attributes:


    STR: 4


    DEX: 4


    VIT:   3


    SPT: 16 ]


    Items from all the runs: 1x Rusty short sword - E, 1x simple armour - E, 5x Healing potions - E, 5x Mana potions - E, 10s Aether Crystals - E.


    Due to his SPT on 16, had bumped his Energy to 8, giving him a total of up to 8 hands if he chose to, or extending his Area up to ~22m/70ft while using just one hand. The total weight he could lift per hand was now up to 160g/5.6oz. Total lifting weight of 1.28kg/2.75 lbs when using all 8 hands. So a decent upgrade all in all. He could now comfortably use only two Psyhands on a dagger, letting him wield a total of all four that he had.


    ¡°I think that¡¯ll do it for today.¡± Janik explained as he stretched. Having just taken out the Goblin Chief yet again. ¡°I think we can go to the next one tomorrow. It¡¯s a bit more complex and has more targets, but it¡¯s kind of the same as this one in spirit.¡±


    ¡°Are they all like that? Just go in and kill everything?¡± Sam questioned, it seemed almost a bit too easy.


    ¡°Nah, the easy ones are like that, but as soon as you start going into the random ones it can be... well... random. I heard of some, where you needed to answer a riddle, others might have skill challenges or just a duel. It¡¯s not the same for location either, they might be called Dungeons but you might enter an open plain or something like a neverending ocean.¡± Walking towards the exit portal, Janik kept talking.


    ¡°Like the Plains of Aetheria, you have just been in the first level, which is the large grass fields and forests, the other levels are different. The second level is just mountains and caves, the third is an island in a seemingly neverending ocean. The fourth is the last one we have managed to get to, and it''s a collection of floating islands in the sky, or so we think, we haven¡¯t found a ground yet.¡±


    Sam knew about these, after all this info isn¡¯t being kept a secret, though it did dawn on him that he, now as a Player, could go visit them at some point.


    ¡°But, that¡¯s something for tomorrow.¡± Janik continued. ¡°I¡¯m heading home, got stuff to do. You can go sell your shit and get a room, we can meet tomorrow, I¡¯ll send you a text.¡± He smiled as he entered the area of the exit portal, seemingly having accepted as he blinked out of existence.


    Sam did the same after making sure he had retrieved all his stuff. A few seconds later they were together again on the landing platform and were guided out of it. This time they head down the exit hallway instead of going back into the queue. They didn¡¯t talk too much, they were surprisingly tired now that they weren¡¯t planning to go back in. Though Janik had much more stamina than Sam, he might have been on edge or focused on making sure Sam was safe, which seemed like a kind of mental fatigue. Sam had been doing all the work, and gotten all the rewards. He felt almost a bit guilty for that, but Janik refused to take anything in the starter dungeon.


    ¡°We¡¯ll talk tomorrow.¡± Janik commented as he waved before leaving towards the exit.


    They had split up in a good spot where Sam could go over to an appraisal desk. There was a slight line, so he had to wait yet again. Mentally letting his mind wander, he felt neat, this was cool and it was amazing to see progress like this, but his mind wandered into something else. Something he hadn¡¯t considered before. Why was he doing this?


    Considering this for a moment, now that he had the time to wind down. He wanted power, yes. He wanted to fight and improve himself, yes. He liked the feeling and all that but, besides being a dream that everyone wants, being able to live comfortably. Did he have a goal in life? He had over a thousand dollars in his bank, the first time he had that much and the option to spend it, not knowing exactly how much he¡¯d get today but it should be a bit. Now that money was somewhat handled, he could just do a few hours of the starter dungeon each day if needed and he should be good for a while, but... What was his end goal?


    He wanted to continue, but what would he do once he levels up, growing in power? This was only his second day and he was already having an existential crisis.


    ¡°Next!¡± A male voice broke him out of it, which might have been for the better. It was Sam¡¯s turn with the appraisal desk.


    Walking up he got a well-practised greeting wondering what he wanted appraised.


    Deciding to keep the health potions for now, he opted to sell the Mana potions, simple armour, rusty sword and the Aether crystals. He placed them all on the table.


    ¡°Please give me a moment.¡± The man in his early 30s and TAC branded clothing requested as he took out a tablet with a fancy scanner on it. A few moments later he handed the tablet over to Sam for an overview.


    Each item was listed. The Crystals at this rank were worth 25 each, the sword was 30, the armour was 25, and the mana potions 100 each. A total of $805 if he accepted.


    He almost felt a bit weird at how easy it was to amass this money, compared to working his day-to-day corner store job, he would have to work for quite a bit to get the same output, and then Taxes was a thing on top of that.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry...¡± Sam started. ¡°This is my first time selling things like this, do I just agree? Do I need to do something?¡± He was confused, it was good that they showed the prices and everything, probably a confirmation since some players might know what things are worth, but to Sam this was unknown.


    The man smiled and let out a single chuckle. ¡°No worries, everyone starts there. I¡¯m just showing you this as a confirmation, you just need to agree and show me your ID, and I¡¯ll have that deposited for you unless you want it in cash.¡±


    Sam was glad it was an easy thing, agreeing on the sum it was all good.


    ¡°Oh, where do I need to go to get a room in TAC?¡± He added after agreeing to the sum.


    ¡°Just go to the desk over there.¡± The clerk pointed at the desks in the Information area. ¡°They can help you with that.¡±


    After thanking him for his aid, Sam walked over to the Information desk, asking about a room. There were several classes of rooms, but he just needed the cheapest thing. The cheapest available room they had were at $100 per day, which included everything as well as breakfast. It was more expensive than the hostel but it came with so many more facilities. The clerk opened up a small pamphlet that showed what came with it, more than a room it was a small apartment.


    Taking it for now, he decided to get a taste of the good life, feeling he had earned it today!


    Being told that it¡¯s registered to his ID, he could use that as a key. He went and picked up his stuff, followed the instructions and lines on the floor, up the stairs and eventually in front of the room he had rented.


    Waving his ID card in front of it, the lock blinked twice before letting out a low blip and opening. Entering it he couldn¡¯t explain it in different words than entering a small apartment. The bedroom was a dedicated room, the kitchen and living room were an open solution, and he had a small bathroom with a washer/dryer combo. Everything was furnished, the bed was clean and fresh, and everything was just so... extra, compared to the hostel he had lived in before. Just being able to live here for the rest of his life would be amazing. The money he earned today would be enough to keep him for a week, and that was the shit-tier Dungeon.


    Not having found a goal in life yet, his first goal was to just fall into bed, he needed a shower but that could come later. Landing on the blanket on top of the bed was amazing, his bag just dropped on the floor and at that moment, everything just felt good.


    Suddenly a fancy filigree window opened.


    [ Conditions met; Player will be transported to Solo Dungeon. ]

 Ch.012 - Solo Dungeon?

    Sam looked at the message that had just opened, and at the exact moment he had completed reading the sentence he felt the same warm light move him.


    ¡°No, wait!¡± Sam called out, almost like he was trying to cancel it. However, his words were ignored and from his view the first word was spoken in his room and the second was wherever he landed. Before he got a chance to look around in this dark place two windows opened; a welcome and a quest window.


    [ Welcome to Solo Dungeon: !&¡è¡ì%. ]


    [ Solo Dungeon Clear conditions - 0/?


    -Exit into the next room. ]


    First of all, he didn¡¯t like the glitched text on the name. It looked like the message was going to welcome him to the name but...


    Secondly, without more details, or rather without any good details, he only felt like complaining to someone about this. He had to exit a room... which was ominous at the best of days.


    Taking a good look around he couldn¡¯t see much at all. There was no light source, the whole place was completely pitch black. He could feel the ground being somewhat soft under his feet, a strange give in the footing. Standing still he also almost felt the ground move, like he was standing on the fleshy body of something massive. The damp air was filled with the smell of rotten meat and mould, a strong sting of old sweat and festering excrement lingered in the distance. He needed a brief moment to control his stomach and swiftly get used to the smell, even slightly. Or he¡¯d lose the remainder of his lunch. Having lived on the street aided him a little with this, but the smell was intense.


    Taking out his cell phone, he complained about little charge left as soon as he unlocked it. Sam couldn¡¯t pretend he was surprised, he had had this phone for years and it was second-hand even then. Activating the flashlight warned about low power and that this would drain the remaining battery faster. He didn¡¯t have a choice and allowed the activation.


    The little LED activated, sending out its short-range light. The walls, the floor, the ceiling, everything he could see was made of slowly pulsing, discoloured flesh. Everything was slimy and moist like it was rotting slightly, just enough to let a layer of slime and puss cover most of it. The skin-like layer above it looked more like a thin transparent film of slime that had barely hardened, making a membrane more so than skin. In certain areas there appeared to be oozing boils in clusters, or the odd one alone here and there. It was wriggling, pulsing and ever so barely moving almost as if a pulse was moving towards it, pulling and moving the slime and puss-covered membrane around. It was the image of standing inside a large, diseased and rotting corpse, barely still living.


    Sam had to widen his stance to not fall to his knees, he didn¡¯t want to touch this thing more than he had to, but the sight of everything pushed him over the edge and the twisting grasp in the bottom of his gut had enough. He threw up everything in his stomach, splattering across the fleshy floor in front of him. His stomach contents mixed with the already wet substances on the floor, lit up by the flashlight on his phone, combined with the horrible new smell this created. His already empty stomach churned, and he gagged and tried to throw up again. Though his stomach didn¡¯t have anything remaining it still tried to throw up more than once. This process went on for a few moments, a few moments that felt like far too long. Once he finally stabilized his stomach enough to not gag and throw up nothing, something even worse happened.


    The flashlight turned off.


    The flashlight turned off and he got a few seconds of a screen displaying a message about being out of battery, shutting down. He cursed himself that he didn¡¯t get a new modern Arcane Battery phone yesterday when he had that much money, or just a dumb little light using simple batteries. They were super cheap and lasted for hours due to simple LED tech... but no, he was now in the darkness.


    A brief thought made him realize why this was a quest, getting out of there was... disgustingly easy and hard at the same time. In the brief practical use of the light, he saw that he was in a room, or more like a fleshy cavity of sorts... a hallway or opening was leading out of here. His light didn¡¯t have the range to show him further away than that, but... he had a backup solution... Like everyone, he could feel his way around. Stepping gently and feeling around the walls with his hands, but... he didn¡¯t want to fucking touch anything. Just the thought of touching those disgusting, rotting walls, made him gag again.


    Wanting to take a deep breath to refocus, his body refused the action, almost to the point of wanting to stop him breathing. It allowed him to force breathing through ragged rasps with gags in between. He used a considerable time to get even barely used to the air in there if that could even be called air, before he could even take a moment to think.


    Forcing himself to breathe, through tears, pained stomach muscles and lungs, he finally got a moment. He wanted to get out of this, but what did he have to work with? A stick or something would work wonders but he only had his daggers, some potions and his armour. He had some of the spikes from before but... even if he wanted to tie them together sort of as a poking stick, he didn¡¯t have anything to tie them with.


    If he could only use his Psyhands, he couldn¡¯t feel anything with them, but with 8 of them, he could feel around. From earlier tests when he did the monster dismantling in Aetheria, he found out that though they can be covered in substances, just despawning and manifesting them had the substance fall to the ground. So they would have been perfect for this.


    On instinct, or perhaps a desperate plea for it to help, he reached out with all his Psyhands, stretching them out around him. He heard the squelching sound of them hitting the walls, the floor and the ceiling, it was nauseating. Seconds after trying to touch around he heard highly viscous substances fall and land on the floor, taking a step to the side as a reaction there was something slippery under his foot making a similar sound as he slid a bit to the side.


    His stomach tried to empty itself again, but like a minute ago, there was nothing there. All he got was the involuntary cramp of his stomach trying to wring itself empty. Through all this, he just felt glad that he managed to stay standing, and didn¡¯t slip up and fall. That would have been horrifyingly disgusting.


    Taking a step forward, he tried focusing on his arms more than anything. His mental image still showed him that he could take a few steps forward without hitting anything. Though doing so was surprisingly hard. The ever-sliding mass he was stepping on, the realization that he just stepped in his vomit... mix... didn¡¯t do him well. No, he had to focus on his Psyhands, they were described as hands, he could somewhat sense where they were to a certain degree, like his normal hands. If nothing else he could extend them as far as he could and with the sense of distance he should be able to at least guesstimate a wall, if there was a floor to step on and so on.


    To his ecstatic glee, given the situation, he found out that this worked!


    Sending out his hands and touching whatever they hit, he could hold them there as he walked to get a rough sense of where the wall, floor and so on, were. It gave him a super shitty but working way of navigating. He moved forward into the hallway, and as he touched around and tried to push the hands forward, not being able to, signified a wall. If it slid to the left or right gave him a feel for if it was angled away. Doing the same for the floor made sure that he wouldn¡¯t fall into something. Though this worked it didn¡¯t let him feel every bump, everything in his way.


    Feeling that the hallway was rounding a corner, so to speak, he could slowly walk that way, mentally preparing to slide and fall and to catch himself. He¡¯d rather soil his hands than his face. The lack of sensitivity had him step on something slightly hard, as his weight accidentally got put on it it popped. His foot stepped into something gooey and foul-smelling. The viscous liquid filled his shoe and clung to his leg, seeping through his sock.


    His stomach again churned, painfully strong, the tiny bit of stomach acid it had managed to build forced itself up his throat and coated his mouth before just dripping out. Collecting it and spitting it was the only thing he could do, accidentally tasting it even more through the necessary action.


    This place was horrible, he hated it here, and he¡¯d rather be back on the streets. What kind of fucking horrible alien creature, God or fucked up being would create something like this. What even was this? Was this just a living series of hallways, was he inside something and... What the fuck was going on?


    Pulling his foot out of the nasty semi-liquid substance, the feeling of it clinging and barely letting go twisted his stomach yet again. Especially so when he put his foot back down on the ground and tried to walk, the slick feeling of almost being on ice, barely and vaguely knowing why it was slick, made the whole experience worse.


    No, he had to focus on his Psyhands, focus on the important details. Where there were walls, and there was a floor where he was about to step. Put everything else into the back of his mind. Ignore it.


    Suddenly, from his right, there was a strong whisper, like someone wanting to shout but needing to keep it as a whisper.


    ¡°Hey, over here!¡±


    Startling Sam to the point of him just grabbing his daggers and flailing them in that direction, his daggers digging into the nasty wall, cutting into it. Like a zit ready to pop this sent a pulse of unknown viscous and smelling liquid in Sam¡¯s direction. Not seeing this happen he didn¡¯t have any way to defend against it. A solid splash along his right side, from head to toe, a horrifyingly gruesome taste, highly viscous almost slime-like texture. His body convulsed in disgust, his stomach clenched harder than he had ever felt, forcing everything out. This caused him to lose his footing. The already slick surface, mixed with the new slop was enough to let his step slide to the side, removing his support entirely. He fell to his side. As a reaction, he dropped what he was holding and braced with his hands, Though this let him support himself as he landed, it soiled his hands considerably, all the way up to the elbows, it also let him halfway land on his very sharp dagger.


    The cut into his thigh was shallow, luckily. The negative thing was that this wound was now covered in whatever this swill was. Though he couldn¡¯t feel it entering his wound, his mind made him feel it. He tried to rub it away but with his hands like they were, it didn¡¯t do it better.


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    De spawning a few of his Psyhands, he manifested them again to get them clean, using them to dig, rub and scrape the best he could to get shit out of his wound, he knew he made the wound slightly worse but... in a slight panic of the unknown, he couldn¡¯t stop himself.


    When this felt done... or as done as he dared to do without being able to see anything, he felt horrible. Even worse than he already did. He felt infected, not sure if that was just the icky feeling or if something was making it worse. It had only been seconds so realistically it shouldn¡¯t have infected him already... but at the same time.


    He needed to push on, his mind was making things worse, he wanted out, he wanted to clean the wound, he just wanted to leave. He felt around to find his daggers, picked them up and continued.


    By focusing on his Psyhands the last... Hour? Hours? He had no idea, but he had managed to slowly navigate around corners, through ¡®hallways¡¯. He was becoming more adept at understanding the bouncy nature of when a Psyhand could or couldn¡¯t move further. He got slightly better at registering the hardness of things on the floor and the walls. He was slowly understanding the feedback he got back better, to the point that he could avoid stepping on weird shit.


    ¡°Behind you!¡± A strong whisper suddenly spoke to him from behind. He again turned around and sliced at it, falling over like before. His daggers didn¡¯t connect with anything.


    ¡°Who¡¯s there?! Why are you doing this?!¡± Sam shouted out, hoping for an answer.


    There was none.


    Not even an echo or anything, the walls and ¡®construction¡¯ here were too soft, with no hard surfaces for the sound to bounce off. The only response was the passive silent squelching from the walls.


    Every step he took, every touch he did with his Psyhands made a sound, a moist slap, the bubbling of the hands sinking into something horrifying, something. But whatever was following him made nothing. There was no sound of wings, no steps, no touching around. He was alone, he couldn¡¯t sense anyone normally but at the same time, he didn¡¯t feel there was anyone with him.


    ¡°Hurry!¡± The voice whispered from his side. Again he flailed after it from his seated position. Hitting a wall he cut deep into it. Nothing happened. The fact that there was a wall there, this close to him, there was no room for anyone to be there. But... at the moment the harsh whisper spoke to him, he felt a presence... right?


    ¡°They are coming!¡± The whisper warned him, from a bit further down the hallway he came from. What was this, who was this?


    ¡°Who are you, who are coming, what¡¯s going on?!¡± He shouted out to the voice.


    He got no reply.


    Getting himself to his feet, desperation fueled his movements. He moved faster, his Psyhands doing their best to feel around, he slipped and almost fell many times, actually fell a few. He couldn¡¯t feel well enough for this, he had to focus on the Psyhands, sense their input, how they stopped and what they bounced against. It was weird, it worked but he had to move slowly.


    Then, like suddenly finding a missing piece, something in his mind clicked. Something in his brain connected to the Psyhands. He felt everything, every bump, every strand of slimy goo, every hard surface and the textures they touched. Despawning and manifesting a hand near him, he touched his normal hand with it, it felt like his two normal hands touching each other. He touched his armour, he could feel each strap, the buckles, the rough texture around the edges.


    Reaching out again with this newfound feeling was... horrifyingly disgusting, but knowing it wasn¡¯t his normal hands, letting him feel without danger. It changed the process dramatically. He could walk faster, he could scan the floor and walls, find better places to step, feel corners, and avoid boils. It was disgusting as fuck to feel all of this, but it was better, much, much better.


    ¡°Hurry!¡± The whispering voice shouted right ahead of him, like he was about to bump into this person, this startled him considerably and all his hands, normal or Psyhands, honed in on the sound trying to grab it. But besides crashing into each other there was nothing. Nobody, no person, no nothing.


    He managed to not fall over this time, but it was only barely.


    ¡°Who are you, please... answer...¡±


    This was getting to him, he didn¡¯t want to admit it but it was surprisingly terrifying. He didn¡¯t know if the voice was helping him, fucking with him or otherwise. There might be something after him, there might not. He felt paranoid, he couldn¡¯t see, he didn¡¯t know, and he could feel his wound almost festering. Using a clean Psyhand he could confirm something was going on there, it felt more gooey than it should be... He didn¡¯t know why, he couldn¡¯t see.


    He wanted to give up, he wanted out, he just wanted it to end. At the same time, he had just gotten a new ticket to life. He was making good money, at least compared to before. He was befriending Janik, he wanted to keep this life. He wanted to see what more it brought. A brief thought returned to his earlier existential crisis, why he was doing this. At first, it was just a dream of wanting more, wanting power for the sake of gaining comfort. But there was more to it. He didn¡¯t feel bad for the Goblins, actually he kind of felt good ending them. Not just them; the Kobold as well. His mind went back to when his family was killed, the monster which got out of the Tower somehow. Did he want to kill them all? No. that would be a neverending cycle of murder. He could never out-kill the instant generation of dungeons, that was impossible. He wanted to kill the Towers, he wanted to get whoever was on top to shut this down. One good thing could be to fix it, but the social difference between Players and normal people was horrible, he had tasted this himself, from both sides.


    But, if he managed to get to the top, would he be willing to give up the power he had now? Let alone the power he would have amassed if he got to the top. Parts of him didn¡¯t want this, but other parts wanted to just let it go, let his fellow lesser people get a more balanced life.


    Another thought came to his mind, would it be better to just gain that power, and use the power to make things better? He was no hero, he wanted things for himself, and he wanted to grow to the top for his own sake. Not having anyone able to step on him, but was that enough? Was that his real goal?


    Considering it for a moment, he realised something. It wasn¡¯t just one or the other. It was a mix. He wanted revenge for his family, his friends, and his life. The monsters that did this, the people or entities that allowed them to get out and have their way with defenceless normal people. Every goblin kill, every dungeon cleared, it felt like a small step towards this goal. He wanted power for his own sake, he had had horrible things happen to him in his life, it was good until the monster but... Living on the streets with nothing. It might not be the worst thing in the world to many but to him, it was a nightmare. And... it was just fun and interesting. It gave him purpose, something to look forward to, seeing self-improvement over a shorter time, as most young boys; he wanted power because it was cool. Did he need more reasons than that?


    ¡°RUN!¡±


    As his mind turned almost hopeful and cheery, the whisper again warned him and yelled at him to run. It came from nowhere, everywhere, it was above him, below him, all around him. It felt like it was inside his head. He was flailing his Psyhands around in any direction, but couldn¡¯t hit or find anything besides the walls, ceiling and floor. Being ripped out of his train of thought had him again fall over, bracing himself against the soft sloppy ground covering his hands with a fresh coating of mysterious substance.


    Forcing himself back to his feet, he was getting strangely used to this. He realised that though the whispers were startling, nothing happened. Not knowing what was going on with his wound and the unknown was horrible, yes. But besides the blind stumbling about, nothing was happening to him. He wasn¡¯t attacked and the whispers coming from inside his head, being illogically close, it just clicked for him that this didn¡¯t feel real.


    Almost as if on the queue on realising this, his Psyhands could feel the hallway he was following opening up into a room. Entering it he could see the faintest of light sources in the distance. Carefully going towards it he felt the ground with every step, not wanting to fall into or over something.


    Finally making it to the light, he felt a strange sense of calm, just being in a lit-up area felt very good. He didn¡¯t know how long he had been stumbling around, but it felt like several hours. He was tired, he wasn¡¯t hungry at all. Or rather, his body wanted nourishment but there was zero appetite.


    Standing in the light he felt it pulse, a few seconds later the whole room he was in lit up. He could see all the gore, all the rotting flesh, the veins, the puss-filled boils. He didn¡¯t feel the same level of disgust as before, but it was still unpleasant.


    [ Solo Dungeon Clear conditions - 1/?


    -Exit into the next room - Complete


    -Survive the Chamber. ]


    The quest window blinked and updated, giving him a completion of the horrible hallways he had to navigate, but he didn¡¯t like the new entry on the list. Turning towards some fleshy sounds coming in the distance, it looked like some dogs turned inside out, made of the same puss and gore as the rest of this place, were digging themselves out of the fleshy floor, leaving large, gaping wounds. They were dripping with puss, blood and saliva as their mouths opened with an otherworldly snarl. There were two of them, and he saw another lagging behind as it was trying to dig its way through the skin-like membrane.


    The quest window pulsed again.


    [ Solo Dungeon Clear conditions - 1/?


    -Exit into the next room - Complete


    -Survive the Chamber. 00:01 / 10:00. ]

 Ch.013 - Squelch

    The dog-like creatures darted towards him, the two of them who managed to dig themselves out came first as the last one was still digging. Every step they took sounded like a fresh piece of meat slapping against another, every large movement they did had an undertone of a squelching sound in their movements.


    Having just come through the flesh corridors, this didn¡¯t phase Sam as much as he expected. Drawing his four daggers he readied himself for when they came in range. Though the movements of his daggers would be slightly sluggish with only two Psyhands on them, it felt... different somehow. Having discovered how to feel with his hands there was a strange boost to the intuitive nature of how to aim with them. It felt like his hands were numb before as if he had been sleeping on his arm and tried to use it for dexterity tasks. But now it was like that numb feeling was gone, he didn¡¯t know how dull they were before but the difference was night and day. It didn¡¯t do anything to their strength, reach or speed, but it made everything easier.


    Just before the first Hound stepped into his Area, he had already started moving the daggers, he had a very acute understanding of his reach, so he knew when they would enter it. Sending them forward he opted for all of them to make slicing motions, if he penetrated them with a stab there was a legit chance of him not getting them back without walking over and pulling them out.


    The first cut landed well, cutting deep into its flesh, it jumped a little to the side causing the second slice to miss, however, a micro-adjustment made the third and fourth slices connect.


    [ Flesh Hound killed. Experience gained: +6. ]


    Sam liked this, not the name of the dogs but that one full attack, per his standard, was enough to kill them. He didn¡¯t get a message about a critical hit, so killing them took no more than three attacks. He needed to know if it was enough with one or two, or if it needed all three. He knew that each of his attacks did 5 damage, not counting whatever resistance they might have, but he didn¡¯t know how much HP they had.


    The third had managed to claw itself out of the floor, covered in gore and slop, making his way towards Sam. As soon as the second Flesh Hound came into range, he repeated the action but with only two attacks this time. Both landed properly and the Hound fell! The same XP notification happened again confirming its end. Sam was happy with this, no critical attack needed to take them out, and with only one Hound left he could afford to test.


    His next plan was ready, he would attack one blade at a time, to see if one was enough like with the Goblins and Kobolds from the dungeon. He had sped up the slash to connect shortly after it entered his Area. The first slice landed, and he did damage but the hound was still coming at him. Sending his second attack at it he missed, sending the third and fourth slices towards the Hound in a panic move as it was getting dangerously close. Both landed taking it out.


    Breathing a sigh of relief, he found out that he needed to land two attacks on the Hounds to take them out. Though happy that they didn¡¯t land any hits on him, it also meant that he had no idea how much damage they would do. A luxury problem in one way, and necessary info for planning in another.


    The Dungeon didn¡¯t have him wait long, in the following second after the three Hounds were dead, six more started clawing themselves through the floor and walls around him. He didn¡¯t have time to celebrate his minor victory. The quest log listed 00:54 / 10:00, barely a minute has passed since this started, three Hounds were taken out and now six more were coming.


    Thinking that he had to be more proactive, they used several seconds to dig themselves into the room, he couldn¡¯t afford to be attacked by multiple monsters. And always hated how in the old games where the hero let the villain do his speech or power-up scenes, he ran into range of the still-digging Hounds and attacked them as soon as he could. This proved very practical, not being able to dodge he could simply attack them before they were any danger, he managed to take out four of the six this way. One of the two remaining was handled as soon as it came out leaving only one as a threat who got all four blades.


    He was feeling great, though the Quest log listed his total time as 01:47, having used less than a minute for the whole process his positive thoughts changed. The Dungeon was still not waiting, and on the other side of the room, four more Hounds were clawing out through the wall, but a large boil in the ceiling burst, dropping down not only its highly viscous fluids but also a large fleshy clump. As the first dogs got through the walls, the clump got itself up on its legs. The clump had very, very vague humanoid shape, though everything was fleshy and gooey, it seemed that there were some cartilage-like substance around its body. Giving it functioning legs and arms, all of which ended up in larger asymmetric globs, somewhat giving it hands and feet. Its head was no more than a bulge between the shoulders, almost like a tumour with two small eyes.


    It took a step towards Sam, having him snap back into action, being too stunned at the scene where the boil contents animated themselves to preemptively react. As the second squelching step came it sped up, but not before the four Hounds had made it through the wall and started running towards Sam.


    Preparing to repeat the earlier action, he divided his four blades into two pairs, attacking the first two dogs as they entered his Area. The first attack at the leftmost Hound was registered as a Critical hit! Doing double damage. This was lucky in two ways because it died even though the second attack was missed. Only one attack hit the right Hound, however using a second to move the other blades in and cutting it did enough damage to kill it. Good timing as well as when it fell it slid almost to Sam¡¯s feet.


    The two remaining Hounds made their way into Sam¡¯s Area, followed by the Golem only a few steps behind it. Repeating the last action worked wonders, he was getting a bit used to it now and all four daggers connected, easily stopping both Hounds in their tracks. His happiness at this working perfectly was incredibly short-lived as it only took a second for the Golem to enter his Area.


    Bringing all four daggers to his Target he aimed four slashes across its body. The first and last attack landed, as the second and third missed the target as it reacted to the damage. Bringing the daggers around again he aimed for another attack, but the speed of the Golem was surprising.


    Flailing both its arms out to the side Sam¡¯s opponent brought them together, the momentum stretching them out ever so slightly. Not enough to double the reach but it was just enough that Sam had misjudged its reach. The first swing missed, but in the movement, he got hit by the second. That hit landed with a sickening slam into his body.


    [ Armour, Defence 5 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 25 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€?? ]


    The blunt force that made it through his armour was incredible, it felt like taking a sledgehammer to the side, he lost his footing and fell over, rolling and sliding across the slick floor. After the Defence rating had protected him, that blow took out almost a third of his health. He couldn¡¯t take many of those blows.


    Before getting to his feet, he brought his blades down at his target, using his own hands and legs to get back standing. Doing this much at the same time threw off his aim, only one attack landed, and the others harmlessly whipped past its body.


    Not wanting to repeat the process, Sam started running. The Golem was just as fast as he was so he couldn¡¯t do more than keep the distance, barely out of its attack range, though still within his own. The movement of running and trying to look back, on the slick and problematic surface made attacking that much harder. Only one of his four attacks landed, and it didn¡¯t even land that solidly.


    Paying too much attention to the Golem, Sam didn¡¯t notice the Hound''s corpses on the floor and tripped over one of them. Planting his face into the yielding floor he swiftly got himself back on his feet, but not before taking another hit from the Golem. His erratic movement as he was getting up made one of its sideways slams miss, but the other one hit true, again sending him a short distance away in severe pain.


    [ Armour, Defence 5 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 15 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€???? ]


    The remaining health turned into a dark orange, almost red colour, this put some panic in his mind as he got himself to his feet, and he kept running, wanting distance. He wanted to land all his attacks and do some damage, but in his pain and lacking focus they all missed, the massive Golem dodged some of them and he just didn¡¯t have the angle for others.


    Sam managed to dodge an incoming duo of attacks, jumping to the side allowed one attack to swoosh past him, the other slamming into the ground with a strange slap. Using the moment of the extra distance allowed one of his four attacks to land, opening up a deeper gash than before. Now that he had a brief moment he saw that the Golem was looking wounded, or damaged might be the better word. It didn¡¯t change its speed or aim to take him out, but it felt slightly motivating seeing that his attacks were at least landing.


    He took the time to make an extra volley of attacks in the brief moment before he had to run again.


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    Though only two attacks landed, one of them was a Critical hit! It was still standing and moving after this hit but the last landed slice seemed to sever something in its body, it fell forward mid-step and remained motionless.


    [ Flesh Golem killed. Experience gained: +60. ]


    [ XP to lv.8: 148 / 640 ¨€????? ]


    Taking a few seconds to breathe, he felt very happy with this. He had managed to take out the golem and... he landed many hits, having no idea if there were any resistances on this thing but it had much higher HP than anything he had fought before. Not to mention the damaged output it had.


    Since its feet were just cartilage clumps, the slick floor must have worked against it as well, which was the only saving grace Sam had in this. Though his heart sank as he heard the sound of tearing in the room, a glance at the Quest log, the time was just 04:24 / 10:00, having over five minutes left. Realising this made him horrified at what was coming. Each time he took out something more clawed through. And each time it seemed to increase in danger. Almost to prove his point, he looked behind him to see something new. First of all, another Golem fell out of a boil in the wall, but through the wall came another six Hounds.


    Having only seconds to think before this turned horrible, he ran towards the group and started attacking, aiming at the hounds before the Golem. Though the latter felt more dangerous, the Hounds were faster. Mixing in all of this was just too much to consider.


    Managing to take out three of the six dogs before the Golem got on its legs, he panicked and started making space between them all. Pulling out one of his health potions he chugged the D-rank vial as he ran.


    [ Health potion - D, consumed. 17 health restored. ]


    [ HP: 32 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€ ]


    He had no idea how much the Health potions were worth, but just the thought of him now being almost back to full health, with several more potions in his bag made this feel much better. The coming fight was worse than the last one, yes, but at least, he had a backup!


    Having made some distance, he got a few valuable seconds to attack the incoming Hounds. All three of them entered his Area at roughly the same time, he focused on two at once. The first attack was missed, but the three others landed true. This killed the second target but only wounded the first. He ignored the message about XP being added to his bar and focused on attacking. Splitting them up with two attacks per target again, he managed to properly kill the target he missed only a second ago, but he didn¡¯t get the last Hound in time.


    Getting in range it pounced at Sam, managing to bite deep into his arm.


    [ Armour, Defence 5 has lowered the damage. ]


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.[ HP: 29 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€? ]


    It seemed that only three damage made its way through the armour, not considering the pain, the main issue was that the Hound didn¡¯t let go. It used its weight and powerful jerks with its powerful neck muscles to pull at Sam. Pulling his blades in all four landed solid cuts into its body, the powerful grip on his arm letting go as the creature went limp.


    This felt like a tiny victory, had it not been for the spatting stomping of his last target coming at him. Now aware of the stretching effect of its arms, he jumped backwards when it swung, having both attacks miss him.


    With renewed focus and motivation, he brought down his blades towards the Flesh Golem.


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    Though only the first attack landed, it landed properly! Making a deep gash down from its shoulder to its gut. Not seeming to be enough to damage it, it did give Sam an idea. If this place was spawning more creatures when the other ones were dead if he took out the legs of the Golem, would that buy him more time?


    Not having much time to do anything now, he started running as the Golem started moving towards him.


    Kiting continued, Sam, doing his best to dodge while cutting into its legs. Focusing on the same leg each time. The smaller, or harder-to-reach target made it much harder to hit while running and dodging, focusing on doing just that was more important to him than taking the monster out at the moment. This also meant that he missed attack, after attack. Luckily this also allowed him to avoid getting attacked as well, each time the Golem swung for him he rolled forward best he could. It was more to create more space than anything, as the Golem got back into running it gave Sam an extra step or two of distance between them.


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    The first hit that actually managed to land, was a critical hit! This cut deep into its leg and almost severed it. It was enough that each time it lifted the leg the half-cut opened, making the steps more unsteady.


    Adrenaline surged in his body as his plan seemed to be working, this time he hadn¡¯t even taken damage from it and the unsteady steps allowed him to stay ahead of it ever so slightly. But he wanted that leg. Focusing on one slice at a time to do just the barest minimum of damage, he continued his plan.


    It took him seven misses, all missing completely or passing through the already-opened gash without hitting anything before he landed another hit! Blade cut deep into the existing wound, not enough to cut all the way through but after only two steps, the pressure and weight of the golem tore through the remaining flesh holding it together. It collapsed forward and landed with a wide splatting slap, jiggling along the floor until it stopped.


    Still alive, it was struggling to get on its legs due to one of them missing. Sam got paranoid as he looked around himself, still keeping an eye on the Golem he wondered if something else was going to come through any walls or something. But, to his internal glee, nothing happened. The Golem struggled but there was nothing else coming out.


    Quest log timer listed 07:24, he just needed to wait for the next few minutes and he¡¯d be fine!


    [ Flesh Golem killed. Experience gained: +60. ]


    [ XP to lv.8: 238 / 640 ¨€¨€???? ]


    ¡°What?¡± Sam asked himself as he saw the updates in the System windows. He didn¡¯t kill the Golem, it¡¯s still there, struggling, right?


    Taking a proper look at it, it wasn¡¯t struggling anymore and had just stopped moving. This was bad, still had over 2 minutes left he was horrified as something bulged as it bit itself through the wall. Repeating the earlier actions, as there was just one target, he ran over and started attacking it before it could get out.


    As soon as he was in range he started slicing, again and again, landing two entire volleys of attacks before it burst out the remainder of the way.


    Out of the wall came what looked like living intestines, almost like it was also turned inside out it looked fleshy, and veiny and was covered in a sticky, slimy substance. Not having a mouth it looked more like it had a circle of teeth in its front opening, like Lamprey. The whole thing was not only incredibly large like an Anaconda, but it was also dripping with an unknown substance which made it even worse as it covered the distance between them in a flash.


    Its bite, or rather its attempt to hit him with its teeth missed, however as the rest of its body came flowing after the sprang pounce the tail curved around his body. It only took a brief moment for it to coil itself around him, his arms caught up in a powerful constriction as its muscular pulses squeezed him harder and harder.


    [ Armour, Defence 5 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 27 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€?? ]


    Sam could take this damage for a short while, however it was made worse when its head coiled around and it chose to rake its mouth of teeth across his exposed body.


    [ Armour, Defence 5 has lowered the damage. Critical hit. ]


    [ HP: 2 / 35 ??????? ]


    The critical hit made sense, he couldn¡¯t move and he was also in its grasp. Even with his decent armour for his level, this hurt like nothing he had ever felt before. Though all of this was debilitating, a mixture of survival and gaming instincts fueled by an ungodly amount of adrenaline had him push through. Despawning two of his Psyhands he re-manifested them at his body near his bag. Taking out a potion and uncorking it on the way to his mouth he fed himself a health potion in the nick of time.


    [ Health potion - D, consumed. 17 health restored. ]


    [ HP: 19 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€¨€??? ]


    Based on the earlier damage, he couldn¡¯t take the same critical hit again, he didn¡¯t have much time to act as the constriction squeezed him yet again.


    [ Armour, Defence 5 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 17 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€¨€??? ]


    Despawning and manifesting his hands he could place them where he wanted, placing them next to the daggers on the floor he instantly attacked the snake¡¯s head as it moved in for another rake. Though three of the four attacks missed, he had a hard time focusing but to his surprise it worked! Just the one attack was enough for it to not move its head closer and rake him to death. However, it didn¡¯t stop it from squeezing him stronger than before.


    [ Armour, Defence 5 has lowered the damage. Critical hit. ]


    [ HP: 13 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€???? ]


    He had to repeat the motion, attacking the snake as he moved in for the raking, he had to wait for that moment as it was the only chance he had for survival.


    The snake moved in for another rake, and Sam repeated his attack. Like before only one attack landed, barely, but it was enough for it to reevaluate the attack yet again. Sam was stoked that this was working but this changed as it squeezed again.


    [ Armour, Defence 5 has lowered the damage. Critical hit. ]


    [ HP: 9 / 35 ¨€¨€????? ]


    Dropping one of his blades he used that Psyhand to get his last D-rank potion, pulling the cork before lifting it as he attacked.


    Two of the three attacks landed at the same time he managed to drink the potion.


    [ Health potion - D, consumed. 17 health restored. ]


    [ HP: 26 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€?? ]


    Letting out a strange fleshy wiggle, somehow managing to get an angry roar out through this, it threw caution to the wind and went in for another rake right after the potion contacted his lips.


    [ Armour, Defence 5 has lowered the damage. Critical hit. ]


    [ HP: 1 / 35 ??????? ]


    The health bar disappeared, and only a deep red number remained. He had no way to get loose, having tried the whole time without success. He had more potions but they weren¡¯t as good, 10% would heal him 3 HP, which wouldn¡¯t even help him through the powerful squeeze. He had only one option, he needed to attack, he needed to get the snake to die or let him go right now!


    Picking up the dropped dagger he launched his final strike, with all the focus he could muster he sent the daggers flying.


    The first attack swished past its head, not hitting anything. The second attack followed suit, the creature had seemingly learned how these things worked. The third attack.


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    The dagger came in from the side and cut deep into the top of its head. The same instant the slice passed through the flesh, Sam could feel the powerful constriction loosen. The whole creature fell together into a foul-smelling heap, letting go of Sam at the same time.


    [ Flesh Golem killed. Experience gained: +80. ]


    [ XP to lv.8: 318 / 640 ¨€¨€¨€??? ]


    Sam looked at the Quest log in panic.


    [ Solo Dungeon Clear conditions - 2/?


    -Exit into the next room - Complete


    -Survive the Chamber - Complete


    -Reach the bottom of the Pit. ]


    He was satisfied seeing the timer replaced by a message of completion, but he wasn¡¯t fond of the following step. At the same moment as he relaxed the pedestal in the middle of the room disappeared into the floor with a slurp as the floor opened up. Though it disappeared the room remained lit. Like a sphincter in the floor it opened up into a large circle, the movement moved the muscular skin-like floor down into the hole, consuming the corpses of the hounds. Sam had to jump to his feet and throw himself towards the edge of the room, heading towards the hallway that brought him in here. The yielding floor let him land safely, but the expanding hole was quickly retaking his location. Managing to fumble himself half-standing he jumped into the disgusting hallway, landing in some foul-smelling slop but as he powered through the disgust, looking behind him, the expansion had stopped.


    Through the hole came a horrible, warm and damp wind that flowed past him. Had he not already gotten used to the hallways in the dark, this would have pushed him over the edge.


    Crawling himself over to the edge of the floor hole, he looked into it. There was barely any light, most of it by the top. He could see a spiralling ledge going downwards almost like the inside of a nut, the ledge looked to be made of some cartilage-like substance, it looked crusty and fragile, some loosening from the wall and falling as he looked at it.


    His moment of relaxation allowed the fatigue from not only his recent fights, but his entire day of Dungeons to catch up with him. Passing out on the nasty, but surprisingly soft floor.

 Ch.014 - Flapping

    Waking up with a jolt, Sam felt his whole body tingle, like the inside of your mouth after eating a lot of pineapple or citrus. It felt, not painful but uncomfortable. Using the light in from the room ahead he quickly checked his thigh wound and it looked fucking horrible. The wound had not only not healed, but the surface flesh, though not bleeding, was oozing puss and just looked horrible...


    Getting to his feet he managed to stand upright, to his satisfaction he could at least stand on the leg. It felt weird like he had been working out too hard and had sore muscles, but just in his right thigh muscle. Or rather, he felt that over his entire body, but it was noticeably worse around his wound. He needed to get out of this place asap and get this looked at.


    Taking a quick check on things before he left, he looked through various menus and checked his stock.


    [ HP: 6 / 35 ¨€?????? ]


    [ XP to lv.8: 318 / 640 ¨€¨€¨€??? ]


    He was a bit surprised to see his health higher, he hadn¡¯t been a Player long enough to know exactly how this worked, nor did he pay enough attention in the first briefing to remember if that explained anything. Based on that he felt... relatively rested... all things considered, he at least slept a few hours. He had five of the lower-quality potions left, and somehow all four of his daggers. He couldn¡¯t remember how he got those after attacking the snake but they were on the floor around him. Convenient but strangely unsettling if he didn¡¯t do it himself and just doesn¡¯t remember it...


    Not knowing what was ahead, he decided to consume the potions. It¡¯s better to go in with as much health as possible if something happens. And if it was wasted, well, he¡¯d rather waste money than die.


    The five potions were consumed one after another, their effect stacking up to the value of one better-ranked potion.


    [ HP: 23 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€?? ]


    Just seeing his health bar at all, and the text not being red did a lot of good for his motivation. Though peering down into the hole again didn¡¯t do the same boon, but rather lowered it considerably.


    ¡°Cancel quest.¡± He tried, focusing on the Dungeon quest log, if he could just leave now he would be happy.


    [ Compulsory Solo Dungeon cannot be cancelled. ]


    ¡°Fuck...¡± He didn¡¯t expect anything else. And weirdly he would be almost more annoyed if it worked as he could have done that at the start when everything turned disgusting, or before the fights to not end up barely surviving.


    Letting out a deep sigh, breathing the horrid air almost as if it were refreshing, he took the first step. The ledges that stuck out of the wall were crusty and slightly slippery. Though there was enough room for both his feet on most of the pieces, it was surprisingly slippery and unstable. There was a certain springiness, a give to them. Like pressing on a long nail, it was hard enough to consider it solid, but it still had a slight flex to it. He hated it. Not only did it feel unstable, it just felt disgusting.


    The first few steps worked fine, he used his Psyhands to try and aid his balance as well as to probe and prod the coming ledge. If his Psyhands could move it or dislodge it, there was no way in fuck that it could hold his entire weight. He took his time, squatting down, using his foot to probe the next ledge and slowly moving onto it while holding onto the previous one. This would prove a good idea as one ledge gave in and crumbled under his foot. He had a solid enough grasp on the ledge he came from so this wasn¡¯t an issue. But as the brown and crusty stone-looking ledge crumpled and fell, he could hear it hit other pieces, some breaking up as well and falling. More and more broke as it cascaded down into the darkness.


    Now, it was good that he had held onto the ledge, but a problem was now that the next step was twice as long. He couldn¡¯t do the same test to make sure it was safe or not. He probed the ledge the best he could do with his Psyhands, but the total force of them combined didn¡¯t even hit a tenth of his body weight. He didn¡¯t have any rope or anything practical to use to aid him here. He would have to... make a leap of faith...


    Taking his time he considered this, how could he test this better, he could attack with his daggers but that could just create problems and make it weaker. He didn¡¯t have anything he could throw at it or anything he could properly use either. The corpses had all been consumed during its opening and nothing he was carrying was good enough.


    As he was thinking and trying to find a way to do this safely, he heard something which changed his mentality quite dramatically; flapping.


    Looking towards the sound, and luckily still being in the lit-up area of the pit he could soon enough see something coming. It looked like small bats turned inside out, being all fleshy and gooey like everything else in this place. Their wings¡¯ were made of stretched-out skin-like membranes, they had teeth and a strange almost see-through body. First one came, then another, then several more. A small flock of them came flapping towards him, looking hungry.


    Now, though the situation was horrible, Sam was uniquely skilled for this kind of shit. Having a relatively large radius for his attacks meant that he could flail at them without problems. Though this would split his focus a lot, it wasn¡¯t like he had a choice.


    Pulling his daggers and handing them over to his Psyhands, he found himself swinging his four daggers around at the incoming bats. They flew surprisingly slowly, and were quite clumsy in the air, making for surprisingly easy targets. They fell one after another, again and again. A simple slice was enough to take them out and even when stabbed they weren¡¯t large enough to clench around the blades, making for busywork more than an actual problem.


    [ Flesh bat killed. Experience gained: +2. ]


    This message pinged again and again, there seemed to be a neverending production of them. And they came in a steady stream, enough to keep him busy but not enough to feel like a danger. If his abilities made him tired, it would be a vastly different situation, but had this been in a safer and more relaxing situation it could have been a good passive XP farm, but alas, the ledge he was on could give in at any time, he needed to get to the next one.


    A moment of split focus had him miss a few of the bats, allowing them to get in close and attack him.


    [ Armour, Defence 5 has negated the damage. ]


    They bit, again and again. Every time the message popped up. They did so little damage that his armour handled it without effort. They didn¡¯t get through the protection, but there was another problem. In the brief few seconds he found this amusing, a large enough group had landed on him that his weight had shifted. The ledge he was on twisted slightly making him almost lose his footing. Pressing himself against the slick pit wall let him put his entire weight on the most stable part, but this raised some dangerous issues. The bats¡¯ danger is not damage, but annoyance. Both in focus and in how they could latch on and pull on him, add weight to make his balance slightly off or just get in the way of him seeing.


    Though his XP was racking up, this was worse than it sounded.


    He used his Psyhands and daggers to get them off him, using his normal hands to just slam into them like he was pounding his chest. It was enough to kill some, and enough to get others to let go. But as he was doing this the ledge he stood on gave in, the movement and shocks had it loosen from the wall, sliding down slightly and forcing Sam to take the next step.


    Half-jumping onto the next ledge he landed surprisingly heavy, this knocked that ledge loose which forced him to take the next step. Now he had momentum behind him, the momentum that sent him hurling forward without solid enough ground under his feet to slow down.


    Panic kicked in, he needed to slow down. Instinctively he shoved the daggers into the walls but almost losing one to the friction and lacking strength of the Psyhands he had to change tactics. Pulling them in and using his normal hands to shove the daggers into the wall, they were dragged down, creating a long wound that followed him down the spiral. Every step was worse than the previous, every step as slippery as the one before, though the bats had let go of him he was losing balance, there was no way for him to regain it. His hands with daggers did only so much before they slipped out of the fleshy wall. The next ledge gave way as soon as he stepped on it, completely removing his footing. He slammed into the following step with his full force and curled around it like slamming into the side of a table.


    [ Armour, Defence 5 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 22 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€?? ]


    Though he only took one damage, given the damage reduction of the armour, this was a horrifying prospect. It still felt incredibly painful, like being punched in the gut. The force of his slamming into it loosened the meaty wall¡¯s grasp on it, and as it tore itself from the wall, Sam fell. Freefalling for what felt like several seconds, plunged into more darkness he couldn¡¯t see what was going on, he tried grasping at the walls, at... anything. He slammed into ledges on the way, all of them breaking as he did.


    If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    [ Armour, Defence 5 has negated the damage. ]


    Wanting to feel lucky that the armour handled the damage, it was somewhat undercut of his current situation.


    Waking up with a jolt he felt his head hurt, his body hurt, everything hurt.


    [ HP: 12 / 35 ¨€¨€????? ]


    It was dark, he couldn¡¯t see anything at all. Using the feeling of his Psyhands he felt around, the wall, the neighbouring ledges, the ledge he was on and everything. The ledge felt incredibly sturdy like a stone slab securely fastened into a wall. He had slammed into it when falling, taking considerable damage according to his remaining health. He was suddenly very glad that he used the health potions earlier, or he¡¯d be dead now. Looking up he could see the source of light and the spiralling ledges going down, many were missing. He didn¡¯t know how far down this went. Taking some pieces of debris from the ledges above, he gently threw them over the ledge, listening carefully to the sound of their landing.


    He waited minutes without any sound.


    Hoping this meant that the floor was just soft enough that the sound didn¡¯t make it up, he started considering if he should keep moving or relax. Though as he was considering relaxing a little he heard a familiar flapping sound.


    ¡°Goddammit...¡± He muttered to himself as he used his Psyhands to feel for the next ledge. He had to continue before those things caught him. Though they didn¡¯t do any damage, their annoyance would be even worse in the dark.


    He took a step, using his hands to feel the next, then took another step, and another. It was slow but steady. He didn¡¯t feel any better due to the dark, but it seemed that if he was silent, using his hands to slap the walls around to distract the bats, they couldn¡¯t see him either. Feeling happy that they didn¡¯t have the echolocation one would expect them to have, he could somewhat trick them and keep moving.


    Looking down into the depths, something new came to make his life worse. There was a source of light coming flying towards him, with the same erratic flight pattern as the bats he soon found out that it was a bat with something glowing in it. This was a blessing in disguise, at least in Sam¡¯s head. If this creature came to light him up for the others, he could kill it and see its body fall, to find the bottom!


    As it came into his Area of Influence, he reached out with his daggers and killed it. Like the others, it fell to one blow before the other daggers even reached it. Though as it died the light also extinguished almost instantly. He cursed internally as the bats flocked to the area of the attack, trying to attack the attacker which, luckily wasn¡¯t over there.


    Sam continued his descent, slapping the walls and flailing the occasional blade around all randomly, hitting something. Though it kept the bats off him it split his focus, it was manageable and better than the alternative. It didn¡¯t take long before another glowing bat showed up.


    This time Sam had a better idea. Bringing all blades back to his hands and sheathing them, he used all his eight Psyhands to grab the incoming bat. They weren¡¯t strong, nor did they weigh much. He hoped that this would work better.


    To his satisfaction, his plan worked out wondrously! This had the others flock around it, trying to find the assailant. He was far out of reach and he quickly found that he only needed three Psyhands to keep the glowing bat under control, giving him free hands to feel around for the next ledge. Though it wasn¡¯t perfect, with the thicker flock of bats gathering around their glowing friend, he could use it as a horrible flashlight to see and get a glimpse of what was going on in front of him, at the edge of his Area to keep the other bats around as his glowing friend screeched in annoyance.


    Working better than expected, this allowed him to keep moving, slowly, down the spiral. He could see cracks he might not have felt otherwise, avoiding the worst steps. Though he had to take some leaps of faith to get to the next one, he was prepared this time. The heavy landing would always get bats to attack him, but by curling up against the wall and using his Psyhands to slam the daggers against each other, this new and sharper sound was more interesting than his ¡®lifeless body¡¯, so they flew over there. It almost sounded dumb but worked incredibly well.


    What felt like a tremor shook Sam in more ways than one. Firstly, it was an incredibly disturbing feeling in itself, secondly, was that several ledges loosened from it. Not just below him but above him as well. The sound of the fragments breaking above him, some large and some small, he couldn¡¯t do anything besides curling up against the wall, hoping for the best.


    [ Armour, Defence 5 has negated the damage. ]


    [ Armour, Defence 5 has negated the damage. ]


    [ Armour, Defence 5 has negated the damage. ]


    Each hit of the debris was handled, and he felt good about this. Even the few larger fragments that hit him didn¡¯t get through his armour. Having pressed himself against the slimy wall, face inward and his arms covering his head, he hoped for the best, and it looked good. But as soon as he started feeling positive, a large fragment hit the shelf he was standing on, breaking it along the connection to the wall.


    Again finding himself in freefall, he flung the source of light down, trying to see what he could grab onto. The little creature shrieked in annoyance and panic as it was flung back and forth, towards this and that wall, hoping to find something. Seeing a longer shelf sticking out, he was falling at great speed, not enough to grab onto anything but plenty to hit it and take considerable damage.


    [ Armour, Defence 5 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 2 / 35 ??????? ]


    His left leg slammed against the hard substance sticking out of the wall, he could feel the bones breaking and the flesh tearing as he kept falling. He lost his grasp on the glowing bat as he kept falling, now sent into a dizzying spinning motion from the hit to one of his limbs. The stress and panic from the situation as well as the G-forces of his spinning got to him, he could feel that he was blacking out, struggling as he might he felt weakness taking over.


    Waking up with a jolt, a powerful inhalation as he sat up like someone tased his spine, he immediately regretted this involuntary movement as he moved his left leg a lot in the motion. Letting out a loud grunt of pain


    [ HP: 1 / 35 ??????? ]


    The terrifying red-coloured text was back, the health bar was gone, and if something slapped him hard enough he would most likely not make it out of it.


    Looking around himself in the darkness, he couldn¡¯t see anything, reaching out his hand he touched everything as far as he could, slapping the floor and wall next to him. From what he could feel he was on a floor, akin to the fight he had above it was fleshy, covered in some mucus and had surprising give, even under just his Psyhands. This must be what caught his fall and had him survive at all. For the first time, he was grateful for this fleshy prison.


    Taking a few moments to breathe, he waited as long as he felt comfortable doing. Wanting to get back on his feet he dreaded even trying, even while lying down and not moving in the slightest he couldn¡¯t feel anything but a sharp, throbbing pain. Each of his rapid heartbeats felt like a balloon of needles inflating and deflating inside his leg, adrenaline doing its best to dull it, but it wasn¡¯t enough.


    In the far distance above him, he could again hear flapping. Looking towards it he saw two of the glowing bats, and as he focused on listening he could hear that they weren¡¯t alone.


    Not knowing if they could critically hit him, and even if that would make it through the armour, just a single damage above his armour¡¯s rating could kill him, and if there were a bunch of them, mathematically...


    He started crawling along the wall, grunting in pain at every movement, he found his daggers on the way around the circumference, sheathing them to have them ready if nothing else he found an opening in the wall! As he got himself over there properly it felt like a hallway, and it didn¡¯t feel entirely disgusting inside!


    Crawling into it, he wanted to get out, more than anything. He already had a slight distaste for the Tower System, it was mostly due to his past and how it was thrusting the world into a major class shift, but this forced solo dungeon didn¡¯t help in the slightest.


    Entering the hallway properly he felt it going slightly upwards until it opened into another room.

 Ch.015 - Third

    Pushing through the horrible pain he entered the room the hallway opened up into. Not knowing what to expect he didn¡¯t have much choice. The flapping was getting closer and he was out of potions.


    Using his Psyhands to feel ahead of him, he dragged on into the room. After forcing himself through tears, pain, blood and whatever goo he was dragging himself through, he felt something. It felt like a construction, much like the light pedestal at the top of the pit before it opened. Did it fall here somehow? It was standing perfectly upright.


    Pulling himself in closer, doing his best to make it through the pain of his useless leg he managed to get to the pedestal itself. He reached out to touch it and as soon as his hand made contact the room lit up with a bright light. His eyes stung for a few seconds before they started getting used to it. The room itself was the same fleshy construction as the others, but he was used to that by now.


    The quest window opened up in the middle of his sight.


    [ Solo Dungeon Clear conditions - 3/3


    -Exit into the next room - Complete


    -Survive the Chamber - Complete


    -Reach the bottom of the Pit - Complete ]


    He could feel tears well up in the corner of his eyes, overflowing with a powerful sense of relief.


    [ Calculating rewards. ]


    The following screen made it feel much better. Forcing himself to lie down on his back, looking at the fleshy ceiling he wanted to drift off. The taste of going back and the pain in his leg made this impossible, but he wanted to sleep so badly. He wanted to be healed so badly.


    [ Congratulations on completing the Solo Dungeon: !&¡è¡ì%.


    Rewards: Please pick <one> of the following:


    -Vampiric Dagger


    -Frozen Gauntlets


    -Earth Ring


    -Celestial Amulet


    -Scroll of Ice


    Bonus reward:


    -1000xp


    -Random Box - X. ]


    Sam just lay there, looking at the window that opened up in disbelief. He was getting a thousand experiences from this, but also a selection of items on top of a random box. One part of him felt that this was amazing. The other, pained part of him, felt that he should have gotten more after this fucking torture.


    Looking through what the items were, the dagger had a chance to activate a weak lifesteal which would heal him a little each time it triggered, the gauntlets gave a chance to apply a frost debuff, and the ring gave a specific elemental defence against Earth magic, the amulet increased healing received by some percent, and the scroll listed that it could cast an ice spell once, but wouldn¡¯t list what spell it was until after it was chosen. The thing that would work the best later was probably the amulet. The bonus percent was 10%, meaning that the lowest tier potions would heal him by 20% instead of 10%. Now, this sounds like it¡¯s a lot and it kind of was. It was also a scaling bonus meaning that, though this was just +3 health at his current health, for himself or others later in time, having hundreds of health this percentage would grow larger. But the more consistent one felt like the dagger. It only had a 10% chance to activate and would activate [ Lifesteal 1 ] so it would just heal 1 health. But this would be consistent. Gamblers fallacy aside, this should trigger every ten or so attacks on average. And that was without even considering that it was double the base damage as the daggers he already had. The healing amulet might hit harder when it triggers, but he would need to be healed for that to matter.


    Mentally choosing the dagger, it was highlighted in the window as the others were struck and greyed out. A final confirmation request popped up, listing the Dagger, the Random Box - X and the XP.


    Accepting this he felt the items land on his chest, the surge of levelling up and the warm white light enveloping him.


    As soon as he could properly see again, he saw the ceiling of his rented room. He found that he was placed back in the bed where he was before all of this happened. As his leg fell back down hitting the floor he let out a long, strained, powerful grunt as he stared into the ceiling with the fury of a thousand suns. Levelling up healed you, but for some reason, it didn¡¯t fucking fix his leg... He forgot who mentioned it, but though it would close wounds and heal your health, it might not fix the underlying issues...


    He was still covered in weird shit, the wound on his leg was still festering even though the level-up should have healed him, his leg was shattered internally and... he was not only in pain but severely confused. Shouldn¡¯t all this be fixed now?


    The windows in his view listed his Health and XP


    [ HP: 35 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€ ]


    [ XP to lv.9: 702 / 1280 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€??? ]


    It felt good to level up and be relatively close to levelling up again, but none of this felt good enough to overshadow the pain he was in. Pulling himself to the bedside phone, grunting through the pain he managed to get hold of it and follow the instructions to call the reception.


    ¡°Good evening, this is the reception, how can I be of assistance?¡± A tired female voice asked.


    ¡°Sooo... I am in dire need of healing, my leg is shattered. I am also covered in weird goo and need to have my sheets, and most likely blanket changed...¡± He just fessed up and stated the important details.


    The woman¡¯s voice changed dramatically, it no longer felt tired or had the fake politeness everyone in a service industry job has. ¡°Understood, we¡¯ll send a healer right away. Stay on the line.¡±


    It almost turned into an emergency hotline kind of call. She kept him there and talked to him to make sure he wouldn¡¯t pass out or die. He could hear frantic clicking and writing in the background. As soon as he mentioned that his health was full but he was just hurt outside of this, though she sounded confused at least she calmed down considerably.


    Only a brief moment after the call started, he heard knocking on the door and a voice stating that it was the healer and that they were coming in. Not even a second later the door unlocked and several people came in. Confirming on the phone that they are here now had the woman relax and agree to hang up. He just dropped the phone as they found him quickly enough.


    ¡°Now, I don¡¯t know how, but my health is full, but my leg is fucked up and I have this wound here.¡± He commented as soon as a man came over to him.


    The man looked at him as a whole for a few seconds before looking at his leg and wound. ¡°You¡¯ve been cursed, it¡¯s a simple fix but it¡¯s going to cost a little.¡±


    The statement of this cost didn¡¯t even register with him, he just wanted this shit fixed as it was no way to live, even if it would heal in time. He just nodded in a pain-induced delirium.


    They placed him on the floor and got to work, he felt the energy of several spells being cast on him and he was feeling better by the second. As the pain faded and he was returning to normalcy he felt the fatigue properly grabbing hold of him. He felt incredibly satisfied with all of the work they were doing, not only healing his leg, cleaning the wound and getting rid of the curse they spoke of. But they magically cleaned him and his gear as well.


    During this process, at some point during the process, a housekeeping man entered and just pulled off all the sheets, blankets, pillows and everything and replaced it all with clean bedding. Though this whole event only took a few minutes it was done perfectly. Mentioned that the cost would be added to the account, and he was given an emergency button he could click if something worsened, it was always uncertain with curses.


    He thanked them as they left, not even caring that he had neat loot nor considering undressing, he barely managed to get himself in bed before he blacked out.


    Waking to the bright light outside, coming from blindless windows. Though they had blinds nothing was pulled down. He was still fully clothed and armoured lying on the bed. Taking a moment to properly sit up, grab and squeeze his leg and where the wound was, it all felt like a long and horrible dream. But looking at the Random Box and the dagger neatly placed on the nightstand, as well as confirming his XP being where it was, proved it being real.


    A lot of things ran through his mind, first of all, he was incredibly hungry, and second was that he had no idea what time it was. The sun was high in the sky and his phone was still very dead. Taking a moment to collect himself he decided to freshen up before anything, though he wasn¡¯t dirty due to the magical cleaning, he strongly felt the need to shower. Putting his phone to charge he went to the bathroom, taking his long sweet time, scrubbing vigorously, still feeling surprisingly unclean even though his skin protested and proved the opposite.


    A solid hour or so later, he finally got out of the bathroom and wandered into the bedroom where he had unceremoniously thrown all his gear on the bed. Turning on his phone he was bombarded by texts, all but one from Janik, the last one a receipt from TAC for his healing yesterday. Not being surprised that the decursing, healing and emergency response cost a total of $600, he was more interested in the texts from Janik. Though before checking them he decided to pay the fee right away, not liking to forget things or suddenly being reminded of things he followed the link in the text and used an online payment service to just get it out of the world, moving to Janik¡¯s texts afterwards.


    They started with just deciding on a time to meet up, asking how his night was in a good room. Then as time went it became more and more urgent and panicky asking if he was fine and if something was going on. Until suddenly the last text explained that he pulled some strings and asked around, finding out that he was hurt and fucking cursed. He wanted to know everything about it but getting confirmation that he was safe and healed eased his mind considerably. He demanded to get a text once Sam woke up.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Sam felt surprisingly good about this, though he didn¡¯t feel good that he accidentally gave Janik this level of panic, he felt good about someone caring enough to properly panic about it.


    Smiling a bit to himself as he replied, explaining that everything was good, he had quite the story to tell. Requesting Janik to just come to his room as he wanted to relax today. After the message was sent he also asked if he could bring food, he felt like he was starving.


    The reply was simple and explained everything he needed to know. A thumbs-up emoji, as well as a pizza and a man running a race.


    His smile never left his lips during all of this, but he felt the need to get dressed before he got a visitor. He was currently only wearing a towel, and even that was about to fall off after he sat down. Digging into his duffel bag he put on underwear, pants and a shirt before he sat back down. Now he had to wait, but as he did his mind went back to the rewards he got. He had briefly checked the dagger¡¯s numbers but hadn¡¯t properly taken a look at things. Also having a random box he decided to pass the time with those for now.


    The dagger was interesting. It was strangely mundane looking even though it also looked surprisingly fancy. The blade itself was dual-edged and just looked like some steel-like metal. It flared out closer to the handle and didn¡¯t have a handguard but instead had a copper-looking band with a deep red gem fastened to it. The black metal handle itself almost looked like it was split down the middle, but it was a single solid piece which flared out into an oval at the end with what looked like a black crystal inside. The colour palette was steel, black metal with a red contrasting crystal on it.


    The stats listed it as a C-rank dagger with the passive ability [ Lifesteal 1 - 10% ], the information confirmed what he read earlier that when it connects there was a 10% chance for it to leech 1 health as damage, and give this to the user, it specified that this worked even when thrown so it should work with his Psyhands, making him feel surprisingly nice about it. He also found out that he was wrong about the damage he read, he initially read it as double the damage of his normal daggers, but it was more than that.


    The normal daggers were listed as a base damage of 5, and the Vampiric dagger, as a C-rank item, had a base damage of 15. The Lifesteal effect, when triggered added 1 damage on top of this. The dagger was also surprisingly light, allowing him to use it with just two Psyhands at the moment.


    He was feeling much better about it now, though the other items on the reward list were probably also C-rank, he didn¡¯t feel that they properly fit what he would use. Sure, the healing Amulet would be good when used, or could just be sold and something else bought. But that¡¯s for mentally present individuals to consider, and since he was barely conscious at that time he felt good about this choice.


    Next, he moved to the Random Box - X. It was a bit strange that he didn¡¯t get a letter grade now that he had it, but it didn¡¯t change much. He opened it like he had done many others from the starting Dungeon, and like the others it shone a light as it opened, disappearing entirely and leaving its contents where it was. In this case, the remaining treasure was an egg. A single egg, about the size of a grown man¡¯s fist, its surface was sleek but had an almost fractal design etched into its surface. Still having the pale white eggshell colour, the fractal design in it was slightly darker, easily seen but not dominating. The fractal design spread across the whole egg but had a concentrated point on one side, wherein the smallest bead or something glowing lay in the centre of the design. Picking it up it was surprisingly heavy, not like it was made of solid metal but weighed more than an egg of its size should do.


    [ Companion egg - X


    -Channell enough mana into the egg to hatch: 0%


    -Once hatched, the companion will bond with its owner and become completely loyal. ]


    Sam couldn¡¯t remember having heard of something like this. However, the lack of detail in both the design and information hinted that it might be random. Or perhaps based on something? He briefly imagined if one of the flesh-creatures from the Dungeon would spawn from this... in that case this didn¡¯t even feel remotely interesting.


    Another part of it was a bit... annoying. To activate it he had to channel mana into it. A common resource he didn¡¯t have any of. Energy couldn¡¯t be assigned that way so...


    He put on the bed and just laid back, there was no use worrying about it at the moment. Now he was waiting for Janik anyway, he could ask him about it and decide then. Perhaps it was valuable and better sold, making it someone else''s problem.


    Waking up to the sound of knocking on the door, he realised that he dozed off. He got to his feet, briefly considering how nice it was having two working, uncursed legs before he went to open the door.


    As soon as the door opened, Janik pushed himself into the room almost like he was afraid of being thrown out. In one hand he held a large pizza box and in the other, he had a grocery bag with various snacks and soda in it. Having successfully broken into the room he turned to face Sam properly, looking over him for a few solid, awkward seconds. ¡°Good, you look fine!¡± He said it a bit loud almost like a joke, but in that motion, there was a deep sigh of relief.


    He walked over to the table and placed both the pizza and bag on it before turning back, ordering Sam to explain what happened!


    Sam closed the door before he joined Janik at the table, sitting down and taking a few bites. He planned to pay him back later but right now he was starving. Janik sat down and joined him in eating, but seemed to save more than half of it for Sam rather than eating, rather opening some snacks at that point.


    The story was told in decent detail, he didn¡¯t go into extreme verbosity when it came to the smells, feelings... tastes... He explained it in simpler terms but added some of his thoughts, not touching on the existential crisis he had in the flesh corridors. Going on to explain the fights, and the weird makeup of the monsters before the sphincter opened up into the chasm he had to navigate. The bats, the weird crusty cartilage and, perhaps he went into more detail than he planned.


    ¡°Dude... what the fuck...¡± Janik finally broke the silence from his side. He listened patiently but had to stop himself from breaking into the explanations more than once, but now after Sam had lightly detailed the healing before he crashed yesterday, he joined the conversation. ¡°I mean... I have heard of Solo Dungeons before, but never one that pulled you in like that... There are many dungeons that don¡¯t let you out after entering but... it always gives you a choice to enter or not.¡±


    Janik looked a bit worried. Growing entirely silent for a few solid seconds. ¡°But... you¡¯re sure you¡¯re ok, right? I mean, if you want to talk about things I¡¯m here. Or I can help you find someone, that shit¡¯s crazy so... I get it... You should take care of your mental health, you know.¡±


    Janik¡¯s tone managed to make it all sound incredibly supportive. He didn¡¯t seem like he had a single negative thing to say about the situation.


    ¡°No, I¡¯m fine... Surprisingly so. It was mainly disgusting but if you think about it, it¡¯s just different-looking monsters. Sure, there¡¯s a bit more to it but I think I¡¯m good.¡± Sam felt himself relaxed and felt surprisingly honest about this. It wasn¡¯t something he had considered, and although the Dungeon was disgusting and horrifying at the moment, it was ¡®just¡¯ another Dungeon. He wasn¡¯t sure if that was his real thoughts or some coping mechanism, but in the end, it felt properly honest.


    ¡°Well, as long as you¡¯re sure about it.¡± Janik added, almost blamingly so. He looked at Sam with an almost suspicious expression before it all suddenly changed to a much more intrigued and happy one. ¡°You said you got some interesting rewards for it?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I got two things, the Random Box only had an egg in it.¡± Sam got up from the chair, into the bedroom and got the dagger and the egg, placing them both on the table when he got back.


    Janik inspected both of them, seeming very interested in both of them. Sam added his question as Janik inspected it.


    ¡°I like the dagger, though I don¡¯t know much about the egg or Companions.¡± Sam shrugged.


    ¡°Well, the dagger is amazing, lifesteal is not a common thing to have, and though it¡¯s only one health it adds up over time. The companion egg is interesting. I have seen them at the auction a lot. They are surprisingly expensive, more than you¡¯d think. Though you don¡¯t know what you¡¯ll get from them, you can get a mouse, a horse, a dragon or something like that. It¡¯s seemingly random, not even tied to where you got it.¡±


    This intrigued Sam a lot. ¡°How... how much?¡± His mind was still on the money.


    ¡°Oh, thousands, easily. I have seen them in the tens of thousands as well. I know this is a lot, a lot of money to randomly get like that. But I recommend hatching it.¡± Janik sounded like the end of his sentence came from personal experience.


    Sam looked at him a bit confused. ¡°But... I get that you have a chance of getting something amazing, but... if I can get tens of thousands for it, won¡¯t that be smarter?¡± He didn¡¯t even try to hide the greed in his eyes.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s one way of seeing it, but imagine you do get something neat? A completely subservient ally is not something you should underestimate. Let¡¯s say you get a mouse, now consider how easy it is for a mouse to sneak around and scout. Or a bird, or some transport or working creature? I heard of someone who got a stone golem a while back... Imagine 20 tons of rock moving around, wanting to protect you with its life...¡± Janik sighed and took a sip of his soda before continuing. ¡°I know the money is tempting. And in some cases could be worth it, but if you dislike what you get, you can always just sell the creature then. Might not get as much from it but...¡±


    Sam looked at the egg, he was becoming convinced, it was an interesting concept having an ally who would never turn on him, no matter how small the chance. ¡°But, there is another problem.¡± Sam added, looking back at Janik. ¡°I don¡¯t have any mana.¡±


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s not a problem. There¡¯s a very easy workaround.¡± Janik smiled as he placed his glass on the table.

 Ch.016 - Egg

    Sam looked at Janik with confused eyes, he didn¡¯t have any mana of his own but there was a simple way around it.


    Janik just smiled. ¡°Soak it in a mana potion. It¡¯ll absorb the mana and voila!¡± He made a flourish with his hands at the end of his sentence.


    ¡°That¡¯s... surprisingly dumb and easy...¡± Sam almost felt stupid for not considering it. He had been drinking potions lately, and though not any mana potions he knew that the potions had stuff in them. The health potions probably had some mana too given that it was a magical healing effect. But since mana potions refill mana... it made sense they held some mana... thing... in them.


    ¡°Yep, not everyone considers it, but most experienced Players know about that trick. It¡¯s one of those things that make perfect sense once you think about it. Like how if you pump iron and get physically stronger, your STR stat will increase with it.¡± He flexed at the end, showing his well-defined bicep almost to make a point.


    ¡°That... yeah... that also makes sense... I didn¡¯t consider that...¡± Sam sat back in the chair properly, feeling a bit dumb. Though he had only been a Player for a few days, it¡¯s one of those things that just make too much sense.


    ¡°Yep. However, it doesn¡¯t work for all attributes. We don¡¯t know how to increase the Spirit stat, for example. Dexterity and Vitality are a bit harder than Strength, but still doable.¡± Janik nodded sagely almost like he was sharing secrets of the universe.


    ¡°But, if you plan to take today easy, and if you have the money to spare, why not get a mana potion or two and see if you can hatch it?¡± He smiled surprisingly excitedly on Sam¡¯s behalf.


    ¡°How... do I know how much mana it needs?¡± Sam asked. Now that his hunger was satiated, the snacks and soda just working as bonuses for the pleasure of eating snacks. He was getting somewhat eager to get the egg hatched.


    ¡°That¡¯s hard to say, mana potions don¡¯t work the same in this case. Normally they increase a percentage of your mana, like health potions do. But the way it works on eggs is a bit odd. I have a weak mana potion here, I¡¯ll sell it to you for a slight discount, you can test with it and based on how many percent it goes up with, you can find out from there.¡± Janik smiled widely as he fumbled in his coat to pick out a small vial of blue liquid. ¡°These normally sell to TAC for about $100, but I¡¯ll sell it to you for 50, so a good 50% discount.¡±


    Sam wondered for a moment, but there was nothing bad about this deal. He got the first potion at a 50% discount, and if he was going to do this anyway, there was no reason not to.


    Taking out his phone he used a simple money-transferring app to send the $50 to Janik, which only took a few seconds.


    As Janik¡¯s phone pinged, he confirmed the message before placing the potion on the table. ¡°I recommend a bowl.¡± He smiled.


    Almost jumping to his feet, Sam went to the kitchen and fumbled through the cupboards, finding a plastic mixing bowl, and bringing it back to the table. He put the egg in the bowl and almost opened the bottle before he looked back at Janik. ¡°Soo... I just pour it over and see what happens?¡±


    ¡°Yep, it might take a few minutes to absorb it all, but it¡¯s as simple as it sounds.¡± Sitting up to better look into the bowl, Janik got ready to observe.


    Sam got excited and uncorked the vial, he poured it straight onto the egg, letting it pool underneath it, leaving it to seep into a tiny pool of mana. Though as Janik stated it took a while but it didn¡¯t take several minutes. The little pool was absorbed into the egg and as it did so the fractal design on the egg started slowly filling up. Checking the information window about the egg had the percentage slowly increase as well, 1... 3...5... And in the end, once all the pooled up mana had been absorbed, it stopped at 10%.


    ¡°Oh, 10% exactly.¡± Sam exclaimed.


    ¡°That¡¯s convenient, not always it matches like that.¡± Janik added. ¡°In that case you just need more mana potions, hitting 90% more.¡± He looked amused by the situation and Sam¡¯s reaction, and he almost had the expression of an uncle being passively entertained by his nephew.


    ¡°How much will those potions be?¡± Sam didn¡¯t feel entirely confident in his money to handle this.


    ¡°They usually go for about $100 per ten percent. So a 50% bottle will be around 500. Not always but that¡¯s somewhat the norm. Though if you¡¯re short on cash, taking a few rounds in the starter dungeon could make that happen for free... sort of, and you can test that new dagger of yours.¡± Janik smiled, almost like he was making a deal out of ruining Sam¡¯s day of calm.


    Sam pondered this for a moment, the only potions he got down there were the 10% ones. After several hours of repeating it, he got a total of 5 mana potions, so 50%. He would need almost double that. He didn¡¯t know the odds for the mana potions to come out of the Random Box at that level, but expecting that one comes every three runs, needing 9 potions, that¡¯s 27 runs. Rounding to 30, taking 30 minutes each run that¡¯s a full day of about 8 hours. Though, running it 30 times and killing everything also nets more XP than he needs to level... Compared to about $900 it felt surprisingly... acceptable.


    This also made him realise that there was a surprising amount of math to consider when being a Player, simple math but still more than he expected.


    ¡°I¡¯m drawn to a day of simple Dungeons, to be honest... I know that higher-level ones have higher rewards but...¡± Sam looked unsure and a bit confused in how to word it.


    ¡°This was your calm day, after all.¡± Janik finished his sentence in his own words.


    ¡°Well, yes, kind of. I want to keep climbing and get better, but I feel that after last night... I want to just calm down a bit.¡± His smile was forced, not pained just tired and worn.


    Janik lifted an eyebrow as he looked back at Sam. ¡°Yeah, I can see that, absolutely. Though that said, as there isn¡¯t much for me in there, I assume you can handle those alone this round?¡± His expression was almost adding to the question.


    ¡°Yeah, I think that after a few runs with you yesterday I was ready to do that specific dungeon alone... And after the Solo Dungeon, not to mention with the new and fancy dagger. I think I¡¯ll be fine. Worst case scenario, I can always leave it.¡± He smiled, feeling surprisingly good that leaving like that was an option.


    ¡°That¡¯s good, I got something to take care of, shouldn¡¯t take more than a few hours at most but I might as well go visit some friends while I¡¯m at it.¡± He smiled, looking happy that this could be a calm day for him at least. ¡°But, you better call me before you hatch the egg.¡± He looked serious at the last statement.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll do that. But first I need to gather 90% worth of mana potions...¡± Though he was excited about it yesterday, after the Solo Dungeon he was surprisingly more interested in relaxing today, just sleeping and eating. Though, that said, he really did like the idea with the egg, and having an extra friend, of sorts, felt worth a day of training. Besides, if his math checked out, he should at least level after all of that as well, so it would be a win/win.


    He still knew that he could just go and buy the potions, but if they cost $100 each it would eat into his fundings quite considerably.


    ¡°Keep the rest of the snacks. I don¡¯t want to carry it around.¡± Janik commented, though there was a tone in his voice slightly hinting that he planned this all along. ¡°This round¡¯s on me, you can take the next one.¡± He continued smiling as he got up from the chair, heading for the door.


    They agreed that Sam should contact him before the egg hatches, this meant that Sam had to wait after getting the potions until he was there to complete the hatching process. Though this sounded like an annoyance, Sam was just happy that Janik was willingly sharing all this good info.


    ¡°But, you better get gud soon. I want to do some higher dungeons with you very soon. Yaboi¡¯s got bills to pay!¡± Was the last thing he said through a wide smile as he left down the hallway with a wave.


    Sam felt lucky when it came to Janik. He was still a strange man but he was incredibly supportive. Yes, he was kind of doing this for his longer-term gain, he never hid that fact, he wanted to run dungeons safer so training Sam was for that goal. But he was giving him a lot of good free info, as well as dedicating a whole day to just helping him in the dungeons without even taking a share of anything. Though, he probably got the same quest as Sam did, so he most likely got the random boxes as well... Just realised that now, he never paid much attention to Janik during the reward phase of the starter dungeons... he didn¡¯t know if he even got anything or not...


    If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    Well, none of that mattered now. He was going to repay Janik¡¯s kindness. Though he had a goal for himself today, he was feeling more than ready for the next step of Dungeons, but today it was going to be safe and simple, training with his new dagger and aiming for 9x mana potions. He could probably speed up the process by selling Health potions and buying Mana potions... but it felt smarter to just keep them...


    Having eaten, feeling good though slightly worn mentally, he geared up and set off for the starter dungeon he ran so many times yesterday.


    The process was the same. Go there, get in line, enter, do the whole thing and repeat. The new dagger was the first attack he did on every target he could. As only one dagger it could only hit one target at once, but it did very well. The damage it did was easily enough to one-shot anything in the starting newb-Dungeon, so he could split up the daggers and get more hits in. Though when it missed it felt oddly devastating as when wielding four daggers, the Vampiric dagger accounted for over half of the damage done. Almost felt a bit weird and was a huge luxury problem.


    The first run was over in record time, the Vampiric Lifesteal effect triggered twice. Though he hadn¡¯t taken any damage it felt strangely nice. When it triggered there was a pulse of energy near it, or rather than a pulse of energy it seemed like the energy pulsed out of the target. This was followed by a pleasant flow of warmth into Sam¡¯s body with a System message explaining that [ Life Steal 1 ] triggered, healing him for 1 Health. It was practical and nice, though the most immediate change was the massive damage increase from his other daggers and the new one. Not to mention since he had gotten more used to his style of combat made it almost trivial at times.


    However, though all that was fine and dandy, the problem was that mana potions were surprisingly problematic to obtain. Or rather, not problematic but just a low percentile chance. Considering giving up and just buying the potions several times through the next 20 runs, which took a solid 8 hours with a few short breaks, he ended up with mostly what he needed. The total list after 20 runs was 12x Aether Crystals, 7x weapons, 5x sets of Armour, 4x Health potions and 6x Mana potions. On top of this, he got a total of 1100 XP which bumped him into Level 9 and landed him on 522 / 2560 towards Level 10.


    He was tired, he didn¡¯t want to continue. It was easier and easier, he got more and more used to things and, after a solid workday of just slaughtering Goblins and Kobolds, he was almost feeling sorry for them. Even after the level-up and putting both points into SPT, he couldn¡¯t lift a dagger with just one Psyhand, but it allowed him to put more force behind the movements when he used two, meaning they moved faster and more snappy in the air, having more strength to combat momentum. This increased his accuracy a surprising amount which in turn cut down on his misses. Once he got used to this change he didn¡¯t even bother stopping when walking in the Dungeon, just rounding the corner, flinging his blades at the targets and moving into the next room. He didn¡¯t tire from using his abilities but he was getting mentally worn out just doing this again and again.


    Deciding to end his runs here, he went to sell the stuff he got, except the potions. He¡¯d just use whatever he got from the other items to pay for the remaining potions, he was done. Though he got a level from it, it took too many runs, and too much repetition, it completely lost its fun.


    ¡°What can I help you with today?¡± The middle-aged man asked behind the selling counter.


    ¡°Yes, I¡¯d like to sell this, and buy three mana potions.¡± Though he was tired, Sam was also happy, he knew this would handle the remaining potions without much problem.


    ¡°Right, give me a moment and we¡¯ll tally this up for you.¡± The man sounded genuinely happy as he took out a tablet, and scanned everything before turning the tablet to Sam for confirmation.


    Sam had kept one of the daggers from his loot, he should get to a point soon where he can use another, so it wasn¡¯t a dumb idea just having one lying around for that time. Not that they were expensive or hard to get, but due to how often people got these things, the market was flooded, cutting the sale and buy price down dramatically.


    Taking a look at the tablet, it listed $25 per Aether crystal, 50 per weapon and 40 per armour. Totalling at $800, since he wanted three mana potions, this cut the price down by 300, so he was left with $500. It was all fine. Considering the $100 price for potions, he was keeping 10 potions, so in total his daily payout was 1800 if he didn¡¯t want the potions. Not a bad day''s work for just strolling through a beginner dungeon and accidentally levelling while doing so.


    His money was transferred to his account, and he was given the three potions, netting him a total of 9. Before leaving for his room he sent a text to Janik and passed by the Reception to extend his stay. He reserved the room longer, having it deduct the cost per night unless he said anything else. Which was a surprisingly common way of doing things.


    Getting to his room he slumped down in a chair, placing the potions on the table next to the bowl with the egg inside it. It still registered as 10%, which was good as he¡¯d flip his shit if it had somehow gone down during his long day of Dungeon running.


    Dozing off a little as he waited, he woke up to the sound of hammering on his door. Stretching lightly he walked over and opened the door. Like before Janik squeezed in almost like he was afraid of being shut out, walking straight to the table.


    ¡°Ok, I¡¯m ready!¡± he commented, not even greeting Sam, as he took out his smartphone and started filming the fancy egg in the cheap plastic bowl.


    Sam chuckled, it almost seemed like Janik was more eager about this than he was, but it was good having eager friends. Joining him at the table he continued the process of pouring one vial of mana after another. He waited for one vial to be absorbed before he went for the next. Just in case something happens.


    The process took a while, but there was still cold pizza and snacks left from before, so they had ways to kill time. Asking about what Janik was doing, only got a reply in the form of ¡®this and that¡¯ before visiting some friends. They ended up talking about Dungeons in the end, how fucking bored Sam was of the starter Dungeon now, wanting to go to the next one.


    As one vial of man was absorbed completely, it was listed as 20% filled, just as expected. This held for the next, and next. Hitting 30, 40, 50... Each vial poured on top of the egg and completely absorbed increased the hatching percentage with the regenerative percentage. According to a re-confirmation from Janik, not always the case so he was kind of lucky with this one. He had heard of cases where the eggs used just one cheap potion, and others where it took a king''s ransom in potions to finally hatch. The kicker was that even the amount of mana it needed wasn¡¯t a good indicator of what came out of it. A powerful beast could come out of a 2-potion hatch, and a 20-potion hatch could produce a city pigeon. It seemed the Tower System was being a dick with the logic behind these eggs, making sure it was entirely random and up to chance. To make people either power through or leave them.


    Janik had stopped the recording a while ago, as it used some time to absorb the Mana each time,  but as the egg reached 90% and the final potion was poured over it, he started filming again, getting up from his chair to get a good angle.


    Sam was eager and interested, having no idea what was going to come out. He hoped for something powerful and amazing, a brief inner panic kicked in as it neared 100% since... what if something massive came out of it, wouldn¡¯t it squash them against the walls of the room as it exploded? Since Janik didn¡¯t seem reluctant or even hesitant, Sam threw those cautions to the wind and regained his eagerness.


    As the final drop was consumed the egg reached 100% charged, the fractal design had, like an almost magical loading bar, been glowing more and more through the whole process and was now completely glowing. A ping sounded in Sam¡¯s head, coming from nowhere, as a System window popped up.


    [ Companion egg charged; Hatching. ]


    ¡°Take it out of the bowl, it¡¯ll look better.¡± Janik stated as he moved his phone around, trying to get a good angle.


    Sam took the egg out of the bowl and placed it on the table, Janik moved around the table for some reason only the man with the camera could explain, as the egg started to crack. Another crack formed and in a few seconds most of it had light cracking with a few that went much deeper, the creature inside lifted a fragment of the shell, not enough to look inside but it moved, bringing a strange joy to the two.


    Then it started glowing, much like the Random Boxes when opening a bright pulse of light flashed before fading. Sam instinctively closed his eyes as the bright light flashed, only to open them a few seconds later.


    [ Congratulations on Hatching the Companion Egg. ]

 Ch.017 - Companion

    As the bright light faded, they were both surprised at the creature that remained on the table.


    A deep emerald green snake was coiled together, looking around the room with large curious eyes. The snake¡¯s eyes were deep green and had a strange human nature to them, rather than the slit-eyes common with snakes this one had more rounded pupils and looked more adorable than anything. It became apparent that the snake was female, her eyes and rounded facial features ending in a snout with what looked like nostrils, coupled with some more pronounced scales along her head and back of her upper neck gave an illusion of hair. Her forked tongue flicked out to taste the air as she looked around, locking her eyes with Sam.


    ¡°Master?¡± She spoke in her surprisingly human voice.


    This caught both Sam and Janik off guard. Though they were already surprised at the otherworldly features of the snake, the fact that she spoke added another level to it.


    ¡°Y... Yes... I think so?¡± Sam replied confused. He didn¡¯t know what to reply in this case, what would happen if he denied it? What happened now that he confirmed it? He had no idea and through his amazed expression, there was a strong mix of confusion.


    Right as he was about to vocalize his confusion, requesting information from Janik, or even the snake, a System window opened up.


    [ Companion successfully hatched.


    Do you wish to bond with the companion? ]


    There was a yes/no response, which kind of made sense. Janik did explain earlier that companions were sold, the bond could probably be broken or something later, but this bond was probably what made them subservient.


    His mind selected Yes before he took the proper time to decide anything. He could feel a dull pulse of warm energy within him leave his body, flowing into hers.


    [ Binding successful. Please name your companion. ]


    ¡°Eeehh...¡± Sam¡¯s face was the definition of surprised and confused, now he had to name her? Though she was born some five seconds ago, perhaps it was too much to expect her to already have a name. Or was it? The System didn¡¯t follow the concept of logic in many other regards, so why would this be different?


    She looked at him with expectant eyes, actually smiling in anticipation as his mind raced trying to figure out what to do with this. Continuing the E-sound from his surprised notion it turned into a word. ¡°Eee...lara?¡±


    The System window updated in his view.


    [ Name Companion: Elara? ]


    It sounded like a name, he felt ok with that. It also didn¡¯t sound horrible. He approved the name.


    Another pulse of energy within him expanded outwards as the System window closed down. Another one opened up above the snake¡¯s head with a hair-thin line connecting it to her.


    [ Elara <Sam Carter¡¯s Companion>


    STR 0


    DEX 3


    VIT 3


    SPT 0


    Level: 1


    HP: 17


    Attacks


    [ Bite 1 ]


    [ Constrict 1 ]


    Skills


    [ Companion¡¯s Bond ]


    [ Venom 1 - RES 14 ]  ]


    Detaching from her it moved over to the side of his view, much of the detail faded into a more condensed and simple overview that didn¡¯t clutter his line of sight, it somewhat integrating with his Health and XP bars.


    [ Elara - HP: 17 / 17 ]


    Sam stood there looking at her with a thousand-yard stare, not properly focusing on her as he processed everything. She didn¡¯t do anything besides smiling happily, the movement of her lips pressing her eyes slightly together forming a surprisingly happy expression. He could see the tip of her tail flap back and forth, almost like a happy puppy, she was wagging her tail.


    ¡°Good fucking gods, she¡¯s adorable!¡± Janik broke the silence and ripped Sam out of his brain-void, startling him at the same time. ¡°Can I pet her? Will she bite me?¡± He looked back and forth between Sam and the snake.


    Sam stuttered, wanting to answer him but... didn¡¯t know... would she? Looking at his registered companion with no answer in his eyes, almost like he was asking her.


    ¡°I... I do...n¡¯t... I don¡¯t know... Wi... Will you?¡±


    Elara tilted her head like a dog looking at her owner as he asked her questions.


    ¡°Do you want me to bite him?¡±


    ¡°No!¡± Sam burst out before he could consider the situation. ¡°Janik is a friend, don¡¯t bite him.¡±


    ¡°Then I won¡¯t bite him.¡± She smiled even wider, seeming to appreciate her first command.


    Janik stepped in and started petting her. She seemed to like it, pressing her head into his hand as he moved it over to her. Using his other hand to keep filming he had a similar reaction to a cat lover petting someone''s exotic breed.


    Sam finally snapped out of his daze. Everything properly registered with him, all of it was somewhat according to expectations but, he didn¡¯t expect a snake and as soon as he was processing that everything else happened at once. He was still somewhat new to this Player business but at the same time... he shouldn¡¯t be surprised if you thought about it. He decided to blame it on being tired.


    Stepping in he showed no fear, after all, she was bound to him as his Companion, and the system informed him that she was his lesser in any regard. He reached out towards her wanting to pet her as well. But she seemed to have other ideas. As soon as his hand was in reach she coiled around it and climbed up his arm. She didn¡¯t press harder than she needed to be able to climb him, it was a surreal feeling. Sam recoiled in surprise but it was too late, she had latched on and was slithering up his arm like he was a tree.


    Getting to his face she stopped and pressed the top of her head against his chin like the pet she kind of was. Her tongue flicked out against his skin as he stood there halfway paralyzed as his brain caught up with everything. A few seconds later he calmed down, he was just surprised at a snake crawling up him like that, the primitive part in the back of his mind reacted before the logical part could properly consider what was going on. Now that he had a moment to think it all changed, using his left arm, which didn¡¯t have the snake around it, he moved it over and finally gave her some scritches. She lifted her chin, giving him proper access to her whole throat, and extending his scritches to cover more of her throat seemed to work wonders.


    ¡°I have to say, this feels surprisingly strange.¡± Sam commented, not just because he was coiled up by a surprisingly long snake who seemed infatuated with him, but also feeling the strange bond through a kind of... connection towards her. It wasn¡¯t just a feeling but like an invisible energy leash connecting them.


    ¡°Ah fuck you.¡± Janik commented. ¡°Enjoy the moment, that shit¡¯s adorable!¡± He smiled as he filmed the two of them. ¡°You look like you just got your first kiss in kindergarten. I don¡¯t think you could look more awkward, and I got it all!¡± He looked almost happier at that fact than anything else going on.


    This made Sam feel a bit embarrassed. He understood what he meant, and given his surprised reaction to being ambushed by cuddles... He had no comeback. ¡°I was surprised, ok?!¡± His blurted-out response sounded more defensive than anything, and based on Janik¡¯s expression behind the still-rolling smartphone, he could only admit defeat.


    ¡°But, jokes aside, she¡¯s adorable. If you don¡¯t want her I¡¯ll take her off your hands... and arm.¡± Janik¡¯s joke turned into a double, something he looked surprisingly happy about.


    ¡°No! No. I don¡¯t want that. I just need to... process this a bit.¡± Sam reacted that he barked out the first No like he was defending the statement as if it was real. But calmed himself down after. He had no idea what he was going to do with her but for now, he was enjoying the moment.


    His mind needed something to focus on for a few seconds, just to calm more down, and it turned to the previous skills he saw in her info. As he focused on them the little list opened and displayed their explanations.


    [ Companion¡¯s Bond


    The companion is fiercely loyal to their owner, listening to any command and order regardless of the danger it might present. ]


    [ Venom 1 - RES 14 - 3/3


    Type: Injury


    Effect: Damage


    As the venom enters a wound, injected, smeared or otherwise, the victim must succeed in resisting it or take the Venom¡¯s effect every few seconds. This lasts until the target dies, is cured or manages to resist.


    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.    -Can be harvested and used on weapons. ]


    The 3/3 seemed to be doses per day, which scaled 1:1 with her VIT score. Checking out the math behind resisting it. It seemed that the RES number, which was based on a flat number adding the Venom level and her VIT score, needed to be resisted. The resistance change was a small bit of math calculating with the victim¡¯s VIT and a randomised bonus, if successful they were fine, if not the Venom would take effect.


    Based on his own VIT of 3, he had a 50/50 chance to resist it. Though it only did one damage, if he failed that check enough times it could prove fatal. The final sentence about the Venom being harvestable was also very interesting, this could allow him to use it on blades or needles at range.


    Janik needed a moment to keep petting her and get it out of his system before he stopped filming and calmed down. ¡°Well... Now that... I¡¯m... Fine... Can she do something neat?¡± Sporting a genuinely interested face, it was hard to resist answering him.


    Sam took a second to consider the question before he realised that he could probably not see her stats and info, since Elara was bonded to him he had full insight, but others didn¡¯t.


    ¡°She can inject venom when she bites, or I can apparently harvest it and use it on other weapons.¡± He answered. It was the only proper skill she had outside of her being his servant after all.


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s practical for you. It¡¯ll probably become more powerful as she levels.¡± He smiled, looking surprisingly happy about just that one thing.


    ¡°That¡¯s also a good point. How does she level? Does she get a cut of the group XP?¡± That¡¯s the first thing that popped into his mind, after all, it somewhat made sense if she was counted as a party member.


    ¡°Yes and no. Not in the way you think.¡± Janik cupped his hands together and reached them both towards Elara, nudging her to slither in. He seemed to do his utmost best to hold back a squee as she did, sliding most of her long body into his hands.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know the exact math, but what I read is that they don¡¯t take a cut, but rather kind of ¡®get¡¯-¡± he tried to make air quotes around the word ¡®get¡¯ as he said it, which was kind of hard as both his hands were full of snake. ¡°-some XP based on how much you get. Like, if you go alone and kill something, get 10 XP. If I was with you we¡¯d get 5 each. If you and her go you still get 10 but she kind of gets her own XP on the side of that.¡±


    Sam pondered this, the main thing he wondered about was where this bonus XP came from. But it kind of made sense, if you could just give them all the XP, a few runs in the starter dungeon could power-level her much like he did. But if they get a percentage of what you get, they will never be more powerful than you and actually be lagging behind quite a bit.


    ¡°The accepted theory is to make sure that the Companion doesn¡¯t outlevel their owner. Though, this might not matter much, if you have an S-rank dragon, its level 1 is probably going to be more powerful than your level 10, soo... when it levels up it¡¯s just gonna make shit worse.¡± He smiled like he was holding a puppy in his hands, focusing more on Elara than on Sam, even though he was talking with Sam.


    Sam focused on the System, wondering about the way she levelled, and as expected information popped up.


    [ Companion XP Sharing


    The Companion will get an increase to their XP, without taking a cut from the Player, equal to a certain percent based on their rank.


    -Elara - D: 50% ]


    ¡°Ah, it seems she¡¯ll get a free 50%... clone, I guess, of my XP.¡± Sam¡¯s face showed clear signs of confusion. ¡°But... if they get free XP... What¡¯s the drawback of having a Companion? Why doesn¡¯t everyone get one?¡±


    ¡°Well, one thing is that they are expensive. They are also stupidly rare. There were more of them many years ago, but there are fewer and fewer eggs found in rewards nowadays. Now that I think about it, the price I mentioned before is probably outdated, if you can find any at all on the market they are probably way more expensive, and they go right away almost regardless.¡± Janik had managed to balance Elara in one hand and was petting her head with his other, having full focus on her as he spoke with Sam.


    Sam had a few different feelings swell in him. First of all, this meant that he could have sold the egg for much more than he stated. He got the power they could bring, if a high-level player just bought all of them and went into a single high-level Dungeon, he could probably suddenly get an army of powerful minions... One good thing about not selling the egg was that, if they were this rare he might not have gotten that chance again anytime soon, if at all. Though the Fleshy Dungeon was horrid, and not something he wanted to go through again, it might have been worth it? He wasn¡¯t sure, but if it came to that he could sell her later.


    Almost seeming like she had enough of Janik, she extended her head over to Sam, pulling the rest of her body with her shortly after getting a solid grasp. As she did this it was easier to see her full body length, it seemed that she was longer than Sam was tall, easily about as long as Janik¡¯s height. Soon finding herself pulled over to Sam¡¯s shoulders she coiled around it for support as she put herself against his neck, leeching of his heat.


    ¡°Well... I will admit I got caught up in your... everything, so I don¡¯t really know what to do with this now.¡± Sam commented. He still liked the idea of having a sapient pet, but parts of him were confused, about what should he do with her, completely forgetting that she was indeed sapient and he could ask her directly.


    ¡°It¡¯s simple, do what you would normally do. Once she¡¯s properly registered she can go wherever you go. I recommend getting her a collar for simplicity¡¯s sake... Just for show, really, should have people think twice before attacking her or something. Players can see that she¡¯s bonded to you via a title, explaining that she¡¯s a Companion. Though, it won¡¯t stop anyone from attacking her if they want to... there¡¯s a lot of jealous fucks out there.¡±


    Janik seemed a bit miffed at the end, but he had a lot of good points. Not like Sam intended to have her crawl across the city for something, meaning she should hopefully be safe from that kind of stuff.


    ¡°For now, ask her, she seems smart and can probably answer the things on her own. I think it¡¯s a good idea for the two of you to get to know each other today. Just relax and, do whatever. If you¡¯re up for it we can go to another Dungeon tomorrow.¡± The end of his statement about the Dungeon had him sound a bit excited, which made a lot of sense.


    Janik had been very patient with the newbie that was Sam, he had levelled up quite a lot in the two days he had been doing this, though not having a reference he didn¡¯t know where he was on the leaderboard, so to speak, but he felt that he was doing well. His point about getting to know her was also a good idea, she was sapient which made this much easier, no need to teach tricks, just talk about things.


    ¡°Oh, and remember take a shower before bed, you smell of... stuff...¡± He toned it like a father speaking to his kid, trying to teach good habits.


    Sam just looked back at him with a deadpan stare, he had planned to shower and clean his armour. Though he didn¡¯t really break a sweat there was plenty of gore spread on him from the fighting.


    There was a bit of small talk of the day but mostly focused surrounding Elara. Sam finally shared her name, something Janik stated he kind of guessed based on his blurring of the name earlier, laughing while confirming it. But in the end, Janik had to leave. He had promised to visit someone else before the day was over, so he had to get going.


    Saying that he¡¯d contact Sam tomorrow when he woke up for the plans for the day, he disappeared out the door after shoving his mouth full of snacks, chewing and speaking through it in unintelligible sounds.


    In the end, it was just Sam and Elara. It felt quite strange considering everything, the thing that made it weird was her sentience. He felt this was the weirdest part of the thing.


    ¡°Master, are you unwell?¡± She asked of him, snapping him out of the train of thought he was working through.


    He must have had a weird expression while working through things, but in the end, it all fell on a simple question; why was it weird?


    There is no reason for it to be, she was his Companion, in his mind; his friend. He should get to know her more and they should just get along.


    ¡°I was overthinking... well... you. There¡¯s a lot I¡¯m not used to and, as weird as it sounds, the fact that you are smart enough to speak caught me off guard. Strange having a sapient being bonded like this. Kind of feels like slavery, you know? A mindless animal would probably be easier to handle, consider it a pet or something.¡± He just stopped thinking about it and answered properly, he didn¡¯t know where all of this was going to go, but he might as well be honest with her.


    She chuckled, something he didn¡¯t see coming. ¡°Does it matter? You can think of me as a pet if it makes it easier.¡±


    ¡°Nah, that¡¯s not possible. Though a lot of people speak with their pets, having you answer properly doesn¡¯t exactly give the same feeling. Just give me some time, I¡¯ll get used to it.¡± He looked calmer as he smiled at her. He knew he was the awkward one, both socially from before, he had a strange life after all. But there was also the whole Player thing which still sat weird in his mind.


    As Janik suggested, he decided to spend the rest of the day and evening getting used to her presence, speaking to her, testing out things and just getting over the weirdness. He was glad to find out that she ate most things, no need for live mice or something, even though she found the notion interesting, hunting on her own was something she felt good about. Though she didn¡¯t have any past... as she hatched only hours ago, she still had thoughts about what she felt she would like. Her understanding of what things were without experience, like hunting, had her understand that she would like it.


    It still felt weird feeding a snake cold pizza.

 Ch.018 - Oh?

    Waking up, Sam felt well rested. Not having any alarm was surprisingly amazing. This time the blinds were even down so he didn¡¯t have to wake up when the Sun wanted him to. Against his neck on his pillow lay Elara, she had nuzzled up next to him, leeching his body heat. Yesterday they spoke late into the night, it let him get over the first hurdle of weirdness. Her surprising clinginess turned from weird to positive, it was nice after he got used to it. Though she was sapient, she was ¡®just a snake¡¯, which helped him greatly. Playing about he found out that though she didn¡¯t weigh that much, she was too heavy for him to lift with his Psyhands, at least for now. She ate most things without a problem, much like a normal snake. For most intents and purposes she was a normal snake, the main difference was her sapience and expressive eyes, giving her a strange otherworldly feel.


    Another interesting thing, something he kind of knew but still felt weird properly considering it, was her eating habits. Being a snake she felt most interested in protein. Though he fed her pizza last night she mostly ate the meat on it, only tasting the non-meat parts. She also explained that, like a normal snake, she would most likely only eat every few days given a higher activity level going with Sam on adventures. And even then she would prefer meats, eggs and things you¡¯d expect snakes to eat. She was capable of eating processed foods like humans, but it was not as good for her. Coming with a surprising amount of knowledge about things, for being a newborn, she knew what it meant to go into dungeons, what Sam was as a Player and what she was, both as a snake and Companion. A positive thing about her feeding habits was that she was not picky when it came to the source of the meat. If he cut something off of a Goblin in a Dungeon and fed that to her, she¡¯d probably be fine for a few days.


    Reaching over to his phone Sam saw he had a message. Checking it out he found that, as expected, it was from Janik, wondering when he was ready to go to a higher-level dungeon. Sam didn¡¯t have much else planned for today, after all, they did plan that they were going do just this today. Before putting away his phone he noticed that the time was after 1 in the afternoon, this would explain his well-rested feeling. When working for the corner store or living on the streets, you never really got to sleep in, at least not in any proper restful state. This felt pretty good.


    He got out of bed and did his morning routine, focusing mainly on the toilet, hygiene and breakfast. Before showering yesterday he cleaned his gear so it was all good to go today, walking around with clothing and armour sprayed with goblin and kobold blood isn¡¯t exactly... positive. Sending a text to Janik that he¡¯s free whenever, he just needed to get Elara registered first.


    Janik replied that he¡¯d meet him at TAC, the registration didn¡¯t take long, if Sam took care of that now then he could just make his way over there.


    This seemed like a simple enough start on the day, he made his way down to the reception and asked about registering a Companion. He got a few looks on the way, having a snake perched on his shoulders, coiled around his neck for proper support might look a bit weird. At the same time, there were no reactions or more than the looks, either this was more normal than he expected or it might be the Companion title Janik mentioned. He was sent to another desk, the reception didn¡¯t handle the registration, but the Player Services desks handled that, which he found himself at soon after.


    A few more questions were asked of him than he expected. Mainly surrounding where he got her from, since he was on the TAC payroll, so to speak, there was the TAC cut to consider. But since he got it from a Solo Dungeon he couldn¡¯t escape from, it fell outside of TAC¡¯s assistance or boundaries, so everything in there was completely his. They knew about Solo Dungeons, and there were some sub-rules they had to discuss to make sure it fell in the proper slot of them not getting their cut. It seemed that the important factor was that he was dragged in, while on TAC property, but against his will and he couldn¡¯t escape. This was classified as not having TAC aid at the moment, so whatever happened there was outside of the contract.


    Registration was super simple, they needed his ID card and just some simple details about his Companion, and she was registered with him. The ID card was updated on the fly through a machine they had behind the desk, so all was fine after that. He asked about getting her a collar, which might make it easier at a glance to understand she wasn¡¯t wild, the man behind the counter agreed with the logic, but they didn¡¯t have any collars as normal stock. Perhaps the TAC marketplace had something. He could check the computers for that.


    Following guidance to find the marketplace computers he found himself at a self-ordering kiosk. Just putting his ID card into a slot activated it and let him browse as much as he wanted. The interface was easy even for someone without computer knowledge, it seemed that the scanning pictures were used as almost online store articles. Searching and filtering were possible and easy. His mind wondered what good skills cost but seeing the astronomical prices most of the good-sounding skills had made him change out of that screen faster than he expected. Even something as seemingly simple as an E-rank fireball was over $70k. It kind of made sense, considering how niche and weird the Player economy was, but still...


    He found a cheap collar on the list. There were several, but he just needed something simple and sleek, nothing dangling off the side or anything that would be too tight around her neck or restrict her movements. Since she didn¡¯t have a neck, of sorts, it was oddly weird finding one that worked. But with her input, he found one that would hold on with friction rather than being tight. Placing the order he got a receipt with a number on it. Going over to a delivery area he swiftly enough got the collar, showing his ID to prove it was indeed him.


    Not long after he got the simple leather-looking collar on her, Janik sent a text wondering where he was, for him to come to the reception area. Sam walked over and met him there.


    ¡°Ah, there you are!¡± Janik shouted out before they were in normal conversation distance. Walking closer he just continued talking. ¡°I think we¡¯ll go for the Goblin cave today, it¡¯s not too different from the starter one, but the fucks in there are much, much more dangerous. I think it¡¯s a good idea to give your auto-pilot mind some thoughts about a Goblin not always being a Goblin. They work together and are stronger, a dangerous combo.¡± His voice lowered in volume as he got closer, until they were in conversation distance and he had stopped raising his voice altogether.


    ¡°They also give way more XP, their power means that they have a Core that can be harvested and the Clear rewards are better.¡±


    All of that sounded good to Sam. He understood that after wading through the newb-dungeon he might not look at Goblins like they are a danger anymore... He wanted to keep living so getting used to there being a difference, all while getting higher rewards, put a positive expression on his face.


    ¡°It is much, much harder than the starter dungeon, but I can still solo it, meaning we should be safe. I don¡¯t think we need more than a few runs for it, let you get used to things before we go further up a bit.¡± Janik commented as he started walking, nodding his head in the direction of the exit for Sam to follow.


    Janik continued explaining as they walked, needing to leave the building and walk across the large plaza to a building on the other side. Still relatively close but it seemed Dungeon entrances didn¡¯t manifest too close to others.


    One thing that Janik warned about was that, as Sam experienced from the Flesh Dungeon, the System wasn¡¯t there to protect him more than it felt. Players had died even in the starter dungeon due to carelessness. He should treat any situation as dangerous so he didn¡¯t grow arrogant and careless.


    Sam couldn¡¯t argue about that. Though he hadn¡¯t displayed this in reality, he had done so in games when he was younger, often getting his ass kicked as a result. Luckily that¡¯s not a dangerous situation to be in, just a game after all, but translating this to real life he would have been dead years ago. He would strive to not fall into that trap.


    Continuing to explain good thoughts and tips, even to the point of recommending hunting for certain skill crystals like the Appraisal one, at least get the lowest rank letting you see the HP values of anything weaker, or up to slightly stronger than you, was highly recommended. But that¡¯d cost a... ton... Of money. Finding other skills to round out what he could do was also a good idea, but skill crystals were surprisingly rare even though they were common.


    All of that just made sense, get more skills to do more things. His current skillset might be relatively versatile but, he was kind of a one-trick pony in one sense. Before he could explore this thought too much they arrived.


    The building was large, not as much as the TAC headquarters, but large enough to house not only the portal room but also an entire office building on the side. As soon as they entered it became apparent why. Though much smaller in scale, it had a similar layout and selection of services as the TAC main building, you could sell things there and then, there were wardrobes, showers, a few rooms and so on. A mini-scale of the TAC HQ concept made sense to keep things closer and tight.


    They queued up like before, and though the line was much shorter everything felt the same. The layout was the same, the guards, the markings on the floor. The only difference was some warnings explaining that this was more dangerous than the starter dungeon.


    Finally getting to enter they did as before, finding the warm bright light enveloping them yet again, before being dumped into a cold, damp and dank cave.


    Looking around it was much worse than the constructed layout of the starter Dungeon. This was just a cave, it was dark, the air was stale with something rank in it, and it was all around unpleasant to be in.


    Janik took out a flashlight and turned it on, it glowed very weakly like it was low on energy or just on a low setting. Handing that to Sam he took out another and repeated the process.


    ¡°So, this place is fundamentally the same as the starter dungeon. Just that the Goblins in here have an actual brain. They won¡¯t just charge you like idiots, and you¡¯ll find that they might do different things between runs.¡±


    Though this made sense, a part of Sam¡¯s mind didn¡¯t expect it, perhaps this introduction run was smarter than he thought.


    ¡°They also don¡¯t always sit in the same spots, there are empty rooms, dead ends and so on. You can almost get lost in here if you¡¯re not careful. And here¡¯s the kicker, the fuckers can almost see in the darkness, and they know how to use it. If they are huddled around some fire, we¡¯re in luck. If not... Then... we need to use flashlights to see them.¡± He smiled seeming strangely unphased by that. ¡°The good thing is if you see this button here.¡± He pointed at a button not the same as the on/off on the flashlight before pointing it away from Sam.


    The beam of light flashed with an incredible intensity each time he pressed it. ¡°Police sometimes use this tactic, bright flashing lights fucks with your eyes, now imagine if your eyes are incredibly sensitive and you¡¯re used to living in darkness.¡± His smile was almost a bit sadistic.


    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    ¡°Yeah... I know the pain of just coming out of a dark room into the sun, this gotta be way worse. I think I might also have a different tactic.¡± Sam smiled at Janik¡¯s quizzingly lifted eyebrow.


    Picking the tiny flashlight up with a Psyhand he lifted it into the air and pointed it down. ¡°I can just turn up the brightness and light the room like this. Or just flash them from above.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s almost a good idea, I like the airborne flashlight, but don¡¯t overdo it with the flashes... At that angle, it¡¯ll affect us as well.¡±


    ¡°Ah... good point...¡± Sam felt a bit dumb. He felt like he had a solid idea but didn¡¯t consider the collateral damage of this hitting themselves. Perhaps it was a good thing he didn¡¯t get a mage class, could have been worse.


    ¡°In any case, I have some potions with me, and you¡¯re getting more experienced. We can take some hits in here with our armour so I think we¡¯ll be fine. This is mostly for you to get used to things anyway.¡± Janik took a few steps before he stopped, turning back to Sam. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m turning the XP share back on, I want to level as well.¡±


    Sam couldn¡¯t blame him, he didn¡¯t know what level he was, and though it might take a while for him to level with the amount of XP they were getting in here, it wouldn¡¯t happen at all if he got none.


    The cave was completely natural, nothing was hewn out or had bricks, a well-travelled path or anything. It almost felt like they had just entered a random mountain. The hallway ahead was just an opening in the side of the cave wall, had it not been for the flashlight being pointed straight at it.


    As Janik led them through the narrow path acting as a corridor, Sam took out his daggers and handed them over to his Psyhands, no reason not to be ready.


    Shortly after entering the narrow corridor, a System window opened.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Goblin chiefs. 0/2


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Goblins: 0/20


    Rewards:


    100 xp


    1x Random low-level crafting material


    Chance (1%): D-tier weapon (50%) or armour (50%).


    Bonus rewards for optional step:


    50 xp


    Random Box - X. ]


    His readiness was wasted as they finally came to a slightly more open area. There were signs of this place being used, some piles of plant-like matter almost looking like makeshift bedding, a burned-out fire in the rough centre. Some bones were spread around and it looked like a sleeping area. Janik took an extra moment to look around the walls and ceiling, looking like he had been jumped before he knew what to look for. Though even after prodding around there was nothing of interest here.


    Moving ahead into the next narrow corridor Sam found himself suddenly pressed against the side by Janik. It didn¡¯t even take a second before some simple spears came flying, slamming into the stone walls and floor.


    ¡°They saw our flashlights.¡± Janik commented, which made a ton of sense. Light-sensitive creatures would likely notice them early, and could probably hear them as well.


    With the weight limit of Sam¡¯s Psyhands, he still needed two hands per dagger, however, this left his 9th hand free which he had given the flashlight. Floating it in he pressed the bright light button. Not only did that give them a better view to see the three goblins chucking spears, and rocks in their hands ready for the next volley, but it also blinded them.


    Sam expected Janik to do something about the situation, but he seemed to wait to see what Sam was going to do. They were within his Area so there wasn¡¯t a problem for him to take the next step.


    The Goblins were still blinded in the bright light, having lifted their hands to shield their eyes and try to look into the darkness where the Players were hiding. Sam sent the daggers forth one at a time with a brief pause, mainly so he could make sure he took out one target before the other, also as a gauging of their health. If he hit one with all his daggers he wouldn¡¯t know how much damage was needed. First dagger to go out was the Vampiric, it didn¡¯t trigger the Vampiric effect but it did enough damage on its own.


    This was good news and he was even more satisfied with the fact that the Goblin next to his initial target fell after two hits. The first dagger landed well but he was still standing and shrieking, but the second dagger took care of that. He didn¡¯t know their exact health but somewhere between 5 and 10, not counting any defenses. His last dagger was directed at the third Goblin and though it landed, it didn¡¯t take him out.


    The goblin shrieked out in pain as the blade cut open a wide wound in his chest, he picked up a spear and threw it into the shadow, but it hit nothing before Sam brought down the Vampiric dagger again, instantly killing him but not triggering the heal.


    [ Experience gained: +5. ]


    [ Experience gained: +5. ]


    [ Experience gained: +5. ]


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Goblin chiefs. 0/2


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Goblins: 3/20. ]


    ¡°Not bad.¡± Janik commented as he walked into the room. Sam could see him letting go of his sword handle, it seemed that he was ready to step in if needed. He walked into the room but took the time to check around himself. ¡°It seems you need two daggers per Goblin, except your fancy knife. It also seems that you¡¯re better at hitting them now.¡± He turned and smiled at Sam in a strange supportive way with some hints of a sting.


    ¡°Yeah, once I got used to being able to feel with the hands, it just became easier.¡± Sam replied, ignoring the sting, as he followed Janik into the room.


    ¡°Let¡¯s have a look at your harvesting skills. These fuckers have cores now.¡± His smile wasn¡¯t straight-up sadistic, more like a senior in some company wanting to expose a junior to all the jobs, while also feeling good that he didn¡¯t need to do the dirty work himself.


    Sam sighed, though he didn¡¯t like that part of this kind of thing, he had at least done it a few times before with the Goblins in his first Quest with Toren. He had daggers and he had Psyhands to help where their meagre strength could aid, so he got to work, holding the flashlight overhead like a surgery lamp.


    ¡°I have been thinking.¡± Sam commented as he was digging into the chest cavity of one of the three Goblins. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it be a good idea to just make a ton of noise, luring them all here, and use the narrow hallways as bottlenecks?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not a bad idea, but you saw the Clear conditions, there are 20 of the fuckers, and two chiefs as well. If we had a flamethrower or something that could hit more targets, it might be decent, but with just the two of us... We might get overwhelmed...¡± He pondered for two seconds. ¡°Well, between us, I doubt that¡¯d happen, but it¡¯s not smart for your survival to start thinking like that.¡±


    He couldn¡¯t complain about that logic, this was a training exercise more than anything, after all. He kind of wanted to get into the meat of things but it was probably a good idea to get habits and critical thinking in better. While he was already wrist-deep in the Goblin, he decided to cut loose a small chunk of Goblin, feeding it to Elara. She slithered down to the floor and took it, slowly swallowing it whole almost as if it was a dead animal. It was a strange way of eating, at least to a chewing creature like Sam.


    Once they, or rather Sam, were done with things they pushed on. Three Cores bagged they continued.


    ¡°Since you handled that well, I¡¯m thinking that you can take charge of the rest of the Dungeon. Later I¡¯ll be leading when we work together, but I want to see how you do things and get a feel for things properly, just makes it easier for me to know how to move when we actually fight.¡± He had stepped aside to let Sam lead ahead. ¡°I¡¯ll follow you closely and I have potions available, I can see your health so just try and focus.¡± He patted a chest pocket as he mentioned potions, almost to prove the point.


    Narrowing his eyes a second, Sam almost felt a bit uncertain about the situation, but at the same time, it was fine. This was for his sake, after all, and Janik gave him a safety net. If worst came to worst he was experienced and skilled, so he could take over. Or, if worst really came to worst, they could just evacuate.


    Nodding to the order, Sam stepped ahead, using his free Psyhand to hold the flashlight ahead of them, he decided this was a better idea to create a false target so the same ambush wouldn¡¯t happen again. And it didn¡¯t even take more than round a corner to prove that this was a good idea.


    A fist-sized rock came flying around the bend only to shatter against the stone wall. It looked like it was aimed at the flashlight but missed slightly. It would have hit Sam solidly if he had been holding it, so he was glad for his little idea now.


    Repeating the same thing as before, he turned the light to max power and pointed it in the direction of the attack, lifting the light source taller. Peeking around the corner he only saw one Goblin, just the one, who fell swiftly to the cut of the stronger dagger.


    [ Experience gained: +5. ]


    [ Companion Elara, level up +1! ]


    The little display in the corner of his eye halfway took him off guard, he knew it was going to happen fast as she was level 1, but this was kind of interesting. ¡°Oh?¡± He let out in surprise.


    ¡°What do you mean, Oh?¡± Janik asked with a hint of worry in his voice.

 Ch.019 - Risk!

    ¡°Elara levelled up.¡± Sam commented. She was getting half of his XP, and since he had now gotten a total of 20 since they got in here, it made sense that she had hit the next level, seeming to use the same numbers as he had when he hit level 2.


    He wanted to check her information and look into this but decided that it had to wait. First, he moved the flashlight into the room and looked around from afar, before he entered cautiously. Feeling good about the lacking enemies in the room he stepped in, taking a final look around before he stopped to inspect Elara¡¯s information.


    She looked ecstatic, smiling widely and wagging the tip of her tail. Like expected, she had a starting block of stats, and now that she levelled up she got one more point that could be placed. Not much more had changed. The system was set up in such a way that he decided where the point went, so he had to be sure it went somewhere good.


    ¡°Do you have any thoughts on where you want the point placed?¡± He asked Elara. She should have input in this as well, it was her attributes, after all.


    ¡°I am fine with whatever Master wants.¡± She smiled contently just being considered.


    This didn¡¯t help, she hadn¡¯t been fighting at all so he didn¡¯t know the value of points for her. He took some time to check the information about things, and it seemed that attacks not focused on strength like daggers, whips, and smaller things like that, used Dexterity to aid in hitting. Now, her teeth, large as they were for a snake, were small and pointy by weapon standards, so she used Dexterity to hit. Her Strength was only used to lift things or deal damage when constricting, which he didn¡¯t intend to have her do. Another good place was to put it in Vitality, not only would this increase her Health but it would increase the efficiency of her Venom. Having her expose herself to attack didn¡¯t feel entirely safe, but increasing her health and the potency of her Venom, which he could harvest and use, felt like a better idea.


    ¡°I¡¯m considering putting in Vitality, that should give you more health and make it harder to resist your Venom. We can do some in Dexterity later once I don¡¯t have to fear you dying when you attack.¡± He forced a sheepish smile, feeling a bit uncomfortable with the weight of that choice.


    She nodded rapidly like it was the best choice ever.


    Having her consent, though he had an inkling that she¡¯d accept no matter what, he put the point in VIT. As soon as the change was accepted her health rose to 20, so a 3 HP increase per point, in addition to making her Venom harder to resist and allowing her more per day. It was a hard-hitting point, he was feeling good about placing more points in it, increasing her survivability and Venom at the same time.


    Using a moment to get the goblin¡¯s Core, he was lucky it was easy to find and since he didn¡¯t need to be delicate about it, a few stabs, cuts and a pull later, he had the core in his hand.


    Before continuing he felt the need to try out her venom, it¡¯s a shame to not give it a test. Taking out one of the spikes from earlier. ¡°Elara, could you put your venom on this? I want to try it on the next Goblin we find.¡± He moved it over to her.


    ¡°Gladly!¡± She sounded not just interested but happy to be asked to do something. As he held it up for her she kind of gently wrapped the end of her tail around his hand and some of the spike before she opened her mouth, long fangs flexing out. Sam was surprised, as he expected the venom to be some brown, yellow or whiteish liquid like most snakes, but it had a weird almost electric blue colour. It was more than viscous enough that it remained sticky on the spike, so there was no issue considering that it¡¯d drip off by the time he wanted to use it.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± He smiled at her, who smiled even wider back as she wagged her tail in response.


    Sneaking continued as they moved on, keeping his light ahead of himself seemed to be a good idea, not only would it protect him from random attacks but it could light up traps ahead of time. Keeping the light ahead like that worked wonders for the next fights as well, to the point that it almost trivialized the danger from the Goblins. Sam tried using Elara¡¯s venom on one of them but he got a message popup stating that the Goblin had resisted [ Venom 1 ]. So they would have to use the venom on weaker enemies or level her up more. The latter should happen passively.


    Further progress through the caves was solid, a few Goblins tried hiding in nooks and crannies, wanting to ambush them, but moving the flashlight around to inspect further before they went in ruined their hiding right away.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Goblin chiefs. 0/2


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Goblins: 15/20. ]


    They had found several dead ends, several rooms without anything interesting in it as well as many hallways opening up into larger areas without anyone or anything in. It seemed like the Dungeon had this large area to have options available for alternative layouts. Since Janik explained that separate runs would have things a bit different, however, it wasn¡¯t that special this round, perhaps it was due to the surprisingly simple but effective tactics, or just that they were too easy at the moment. Not needing to even enter the room, Sam just needed to see what he was doing within range, and he could remote-stab them over and over. Janik seemed positive about it but at the same time, he had an expression hinting that he wanted a little more drama.


    Another good thing was that Elara had levelled up again, they agreed that they¡¯d keep putting the points in Vitality for a while longer. Since it brought the most value to the table until he was starting to feel it was safe for her to attack on her own.


    Having continued through the Dungeon Sam was going to head into another connecting hallway, as he had been doing all this time, but Janik stopped him.


    Looking at Janik with a questioning expression, Sam wondered what was going on.


    ¡°I was wondering if I should just let you go in there, but... It¡¯s the final room, the exit and bosses are in there.¡± He seemed a bit hesitant.


    ¡°Yes? Isn¡¯t that good? We made it this far with... frankly no problems?¡± Sam tried to quell his pride and arrogance, he didn¡¯t want to become one of those guys but... It had been surprisingly easy so far.


    ¡°Yes, kind of, but there is another problem. There are 5 Goblins and 2 Chiefs we haven¡¯t found so far, we have checked everywhere so they should be in there. That¡¯s seven targets, two of which stronger than the others.¡±


    This gave Sam a moment of thinking. Based on the fight so far, the Goblins had between 5 and 10 Health, or at least could take that much damage to go down, he didn¡¯t know about the Chiefs but there were two of them.


    ¡°In your honest opinion, do you think I can do this alone?¡± Sam didn¡¯t think this was going to go as easily as the other things he had done, not considering the Fleshy Dungeon. But he wanted to know.


    ¡°Hmm.... What¡¯s the Defensive rating of your armour?¡±


    ¡°Five.¡± Sam responded, considering that this was a dangerous question to give to just anyone, but Janik could have taken him out at any time during this process without problem, there also was no hint of any double-crossing planned. He had decided to trust him.


    ¡°Then I don¡¯t think that¡¯s a good idea. They hit harder than you think, even the normal Goblins can bite through that and do a little damage, there are five of them. And the chiefs will bite surprisingly hard... Not sure it¡¯s a good idea to let you handle this one alone.¡± Still seeming a little lost in thought, Janik was not hiding the uncertainty on his face.


    Sam did the math. He had four daggers in the air, assuming perfection the five Goblins would need two hits each, not counting the Vampiric dagger. If he was smart with the wounds, going for legs, necks and so on, then he might get lucky and get all Goblins at the same time, but the Chiefs, compared to the other times he met them, there was a significant difference between them.


    ¡°On the other hand-¡± Janik continued through his thoughts. ¡°It might be a good way to see how you do. I can see your health so I can step in when it¡¯s needed.¡± Using a few seconds in thought he continued. ¡°No... that¡¯s too risky, I could join the fight and thin the herd.¡±


    Sam was wondering if Janik had a good idea with the testing of the situation. It would be dangerous and Janik seemed like the extra safe type, which might be why he was taking such great care in the training and safety. Something he did appreciate but at the same time, Sam was feeling slightly paranoid given the forceful entry to a Solo Dungeon... if that were to happen again he needed the experience and power.


    ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± Sam commented. ¡°We¡¯ll do that.¡±


    Janik was forcefully pulled out of this train of thought, looking back at Sam with a confused expression. ¡°Wait, what? Which plan?¡± His confused expression turned almost panicked as he saw Sam turning off his flashlight and stepping into the hallway, heading for the final room.


    He moved his daggers closer to Elara, who sat perched around his neck on his shoulder. ¡°Elara, can you put your venom on my daggers? If we¡¯re lucky at least one of them might do something.¡±


    According to the Companion info window, she had four of five charges left of her Venom ability, since she levelled up and the point was put into Vitality, it increased the daily uses.


    She smiled widely and without responding started putting her venom on the blades, the thick high-viscosity, almost honey-like, substance irregularly covered the tip and edges of the blade.


    ¡°No, wait.¡± Janik broke in with a harsh whisper, trying to get his attention before the point of no return around a few corners. ¡°This is dumb, don¡¯t just step in like this.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I won¡¯t do that in a more dangerous situation, just now. You said you could handle it alone, so I feel relatively safe.¡± Sam smiled back. He felt quite safe with Janik¡¯s comments. He also had his potions and enough funding to reimburse Janik if he had to use any of his own on Sam.


    Knowing that his actions might seem arrogant or rash, the only reason he dared do this was because of Janik. The fact that he considered it a proper test meant that he felt confident in his ability to handle this if it turned south. It was also a lot for his own sake, his love/hate relationship with the Tower and its minions had him want to kill them, it wasn¡¯t that he thirsted for blood. Or rather, it kind of was as if it was an extension of vengeance towards the shit the Tower and System was doing. Using the System¡¯s power to do so felt like a solid plus.


    Janik used a few seconds of silence before he caved in. His tone of voice was filled with annoyance and disagreement, it was very clear he didn¡¯t like this. ¡°Fine, we¡¯ll do it like that this one. Just don¡¯t fucking do this kind of shit again.¡±


    Sounding borderline angry while at the same time agreeing, at least somewhat.


    Sam couldn¡¯t see much more than where he was walking, but he could hear Janik pull his swords and fumble in a pocket, it sounded like he was getting ready for everything.


    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Peering around the final corner Sam was positively surprised that there was a little light in the final room. It was much larger than the others, being large, comparable to a one-floor house just in a single room. The light seemed to come passively from the room somehow, there were no visible light sources at all, it seemed the Towers were throwing the Players a bone in that one.


    Their eyes having adapted to the dark after they turned the lights off a short while ago, let them see the Goblins, most importantly he could count them all. So none were hiding and they were all clustered. He had four envenomed daggers and seven targets. The logical thing would be to poison the Chiefs, but most realistically he¡¯d just go for whomever he could hit, the venom only lasted for one attack, after all.


    Due to the size and lacking clutter of the room, there was nowhere to hide, given the Goblins¡¯ better vision in the dark, the chance of sneaking over there was... zero. They weren¡¯t moving around and were currently out of reach of his Area. He would need to expose himself, one way could be to run in there until he got in range and fuck with the flashlight. He wanted grenades, gas smoke bombs or something that could affect areas right about now.


    Like the first mission to Aetheria, this was a perfect time to do some testing due to backup.


    Mentally preparing himself he started running into the room, going as fast but as silent as he could. He felt relatively confident in his stealth but that was against normal people in a city. It didn¡¯t take too many steps into the room before they noticed him and shrieked something while pointing to get everyone to see him.


    Already having the flashlight lifted in the air he started blinking it on max power, moving it far to his right. This tactic seemed to still work as spears, rocks and bones were thrown at the glowing and disorienting source of light, everything missing Sam by a lot.


    Finally getting within range of the group he launched his attack as planned. Wanting to thin the herd before they got a chance to do much, he assumed that the Chiefs had a higher constitution than the others, so the Venom wouldn¡¯t be as good on them.


    Sending his four daggers out, targeting one Goblin each.


    The Vampiric dagger missed its mark entirely, but the three normal ones hit their target with the first landing hit scoring a critical hit!


    [ Critical hit, double damage! ]


    [ The target failed to resist against [ Venom 1 ]! ]


    [ The target failed to resist against [ Venom 1 ]! ]


    [ The target successfully resisted against [ Venom 1 ] ]


    He was happy that two of his attacks had the Venom go through, one luxury problem was that one of the failed saves was on the Goblin who got a critical hit on him, which took him out entirely. His body fell to the ground with a slight twitch as the two other targets were frantically attacking around them in the hopes of hitting something. The Chiefs seemed to be quite a bit smarter than the others, they both threw makeshift spears in the direction of where Sam was, seeming to hone in on the sound. The Goblins just frantically attacked around them or threw things towards the flashlight.


    Taking advantage of the moment he split up his attacks, ignoring the successfully poisoned one for now, aiming his Vampiric Dagger at the original target, and moving his remaining to one of the others. It could be smarter to start attacking the Chiefs but he wanted to get rid of the small targets first.


    Continuing to move, he stepped to the side while moving the flashlight around, flashing it on and off as it moved around to fuck with their target acquisition. He knew that the Vampiric blade would one-shot a normal goblin if it hit, so having Venom on that was a bit wasted as he focused them, but it was something to think about for another day.


    All four attacks landed true, the Vampiric dagger landing solidly it took out the target as expected, but didn¡¯t trigger the skill. The two already wounded targets fell to their wounds followed by the fourth target taking damage but still standing.


    Sam¡¯s luck ran out as the barrage of thrown debris towards the flashlight managed to hit it, breaking the LED within, and cutting the light. Their highly attuned eyes used a brief few seconds to attune back to the dark, but that was the same for Sam, they charged the sounds of where he was running and he tried attacking them in return, nothing landing on either side.


    The Goblins¡¯ eyes adapted faster than Sam¡¯s did, this was backed up by the feeling of claws raking across his body as well as a powerful bite in his lower arm.


    [ Armour, Defence 5 has negated the damage! ]


    [ Armour, Defence 5 has negated the damage! ]


    [ Armour, Defence 5 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 34 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€ ]


    It seemed the bite was powerful enough to make it through his armour, but just barely, the claws didn¡¯t do much at the moment which had him feel good about his situation. Bringing all four daggers in towards the target attacking him in a slight panicky reaction, had three of the four attacks land, but it was more than enough. The goblin fell without problems, however the Chiefs were now coming for him.


    Trying to gain some distance proved fruitless, they were much faster than him and had closed the distance at record speed now that their eyes were properly ready for the dark. Sending his daggers out for the leftmost Chief before they caught up to him, the situation had only two attacks land, however to his surprise, the Lifesteal effect triggered.


    [ Life Steal 1 triggered, draining 1. ]


    Though the healing was weak, it was enough to negate the damage he had taken before, bringing him back to perfect health. He also felt extra surprised as the Chief fell there and then. Though only two attacks landed, one was the Vampiric Dagger which did considerably more damage than the others, his attack did 25 damage, not considering any defence the goblin might have had.


    Feeling the full weight of a grown man land on his chest, he realised the remaining Chief had pounced on him, not taking any damage from the ordeal itself, it was different as the angry Chief raked across his chest and bit into his shoulder, barely missing Elara, the bite hurting considerably more than he expected.


    [ Armour, Defence 5 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ Armour, Defence 5 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ Armour, Defence 5 has lowered the damage. Critical hit! ]


    [ HP: 12 / 35 ¨€¨€????? ]


    This chewed through two-thirds of his health, it hurt enough to make him cry out in pain. He could barely hear Janik¡¯s steps into the room as he pulled in all four daggers in anger, sending them at the monster standing on his chest.


    The only saving grace of the situation was that the Goblin Chief was standing on Sam and holding onto him, which meant that he wasn¡¯t dodging the incoming daggers. All four blades pierced into his back, his body going limp immediately, falling to the side allowing Sam to panic-move and get himself back on his feet in a sudden motion.


    ¡°Ok, Ok! I get it. That was stupid!¡± Sam broke out before Janik managed to say anything. Looking at his ally he saw the man holding a potion bottle in one hand with his thumb over the uncorked mouth of the vial, his arm cocked ready to throw.


    ¡°Jesus fucking christ... That was too close... Fuck...!¡± Janik took a few moments to breathe and re-cork the vial before, putting it back in his pocket. ¡°We¡¯re not doing that again!¡± Sheathing his sword he pointed at Sam like a berating parent.


    ¡°I... agree...¡± Sam commented. ¡°Though I did get them all if it hadn¡¯t been for that cri-¡± Sam wanted to turn it positive, but Janik broke in, just as angry as before.


    ¡°Yes, it¡¯s good that you managed! But if you hadn¡¯t killed him when you did, he would have killed you! You had just a few seconds... You chose to attack, which luckily worked, but you didn¡¯t have a backup, you didn¡¯t use a potion. You need to focus on your own life more than just attacking.¡± Having walked up to Sam, Janik placed a hand on his shoulder, his happy or giddy nature completely gone, though his anger had softened just in those few steps it was clear he was forcefully calming himself.


    ¡°I... Don¡¯t like yelling like that but... Don¡¯t risk your life, even with backup...¡± His expression was almost sad like Sam had already died instead of barely coming out on top. There was clearly something personal brought up in his mind.


    ¡°I... Understand.¡± Sam couldn¡¯t manage to bring himself to defend himself. He wanted to say several things, how he did well, how this would have been different in a real scenario where both attacked but... Truth be told; Janik was right. Sam had taken a chance just because of having backup, the lack of arrogance in his mind was just a different kind of recklessness.


    Janik pulled his arm back with a nod and half smile before he stepped away.


    Sam wanted to comment but not only didn¡¯t he have anything to say, but the Dungeon Clear conditions popped up.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Goblin chiefs. 2/2


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Goblins: 20/20


    Rewards:


    100 xp


    1x Aether Crystal - E


    Bonus rewards for optional step:


    50 xp


    Random Box - X. ]


    In addition to this, the XP log listed his combined share of XP totalled up to 40xp which gave Elara a total of 20, not enough for her to level up but a decent way there, in Sam¡¯s case he was still only a quarter there. Though he didn¡¯t get the weapon or armour reward.


    As the Dungeon was complete, the rewards manifested shortly after displaying, dumping the Aether Crystal and Random box in his hands, the XP reward put another 150 into his Pool, which gave Elara enough to push her into Level 4 and close to Level 5 landing on 62/80. The Attribute point was again put into Vitality, bumping her health and Venom a little.


    ¡°So, what¡¯s the plan now?¡± Sam commented as he opened the Random Box. Since there was no reason to wait with opening it he might as well get that done.


    It opened to a bright light and when it faded, a red potion and two Aether crystals remained.


    ¡°I think we¡¯ll go to Aetheria, get you used to roaming about there. It¡¯s very different from Dungeons, though you¡¯ll see plenty of combat if you want to.¡± Janik smiled, seeming honestly happy again as he opened his own Random Box, getting similar stuff from it.


    They both headed for the exit portal.

 Ch.020 - Utility skill?

    Coming out of the Dungeon, they found themselves in the landing platform as normal, Sam followed Janik leaving the area like he had done many times before. They soon found themselves outside, not having spoken a word since they came out Sam was wondering what was on Janik¡¯s mind.


    ¡°You doing ok? You¡¯ve been strangely silent since we left.¡± Sam commented towards Janik¡¯s back.


    ¡°Oh, I¡¯ve just been thinking about a few things. First is that I think we should postpone until tomorrow to enter Aetheria, you¡¯re low on Health and it¡¯s cheaper if we just wait. Your health regenerates passively and it¡¯s not like we don¡¯t have time-¡±


    Sam nodded in agreement. He could chug potions, but that would be hundreds of dollars, and paying just one potion worth of room rent would keep him until tomorrow.


    ¡°-I have also been thinking a bit about your abilities. Especially your throwing ability, just how does it actually work?¡± Janik turned around to look at Sam.


    Sam knew about it, but he wasn¡¯t too fond of it. Though it was fine for launching random objects or returning spears to their senders, using his weapons would land them out of reach. They were forcing him to get closer or expand on his Area to get them back.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know exactly, but when I carry something I can activate it and a pulse of energy launches it forward in the direction I¡¯m pointing it. Kind of like a crossbow or something?¡± Sam didn¡¯t know exactly how it worked, which explained his questioning tone and thinking expression.


    ¡°I thought it was something like that. Have you considered other ways of using that?¡± Janik looked properly at Sam, seeming to expect an answer. ¡°I mean, the energy needed to throw something is much higher than lifting it, at least when you throw it some distance. And considering that the pulse launches it rather than you moving the arms back and forth to throw them... Can you use that energy without holding something?¡±


    Sam pondered for a moment, that was a very good idea. Though not the same, throwing something and hitting something could be considered similar, and the extra force would make it hit harder. Managing to pulse the force into something could in theory become a telekinetic punch.


    Since it was invisible anyway, and they were outside far from people due to being in an open plaza, Sam manifested a Psyhand and placed it against his normal hand, trying to activate the Launching ability. Nothing happened, he triggered the ability again and again, without anything happening. He focused on the description of the ability, which had a small window open.


    [ Force Launch: Launch things with telekinetic force. ]


    He considered that for a moment. There was an explanation for the energy cost, how it was based on the weight he could carry in a Psyhand. If it was light and easy to move it cost one Energy, if it hit his whole one-hand capacity it cost two... and scaled from there. Was it reliant on his carrying weight? Or was it something different?


    ¡°I can¡¯t get it to activate.¡± Sam commented as he looked at his hand, assuming Janik would understand what he was testing.


    ¡°Hmm... that¡¯s a shame. Try on mine.¡± He requested as he held out his hand.


    Sam didn¡¯t want to hurt him, but then again the force he could produce with just one hand was... not much, and Janik was a more skilled combatant, so the odds of anything happening were not big.


    Reaching out with his Psyhand, he did the same thing, trying to pulse the energy into his hand, but it didn¡¯t do anything. He could feel his Psyhand pressing against Janik¡¯s normal hand as if he was doing it with his normal hand, but the Launching ability didn¡¯t want to activate. Considering how easily it activated when he tried Launching the bottle a few days ago, was it because of the weight? Perhaps it needed to be an object? He kept trying, squeezing, focusing, imagining his hand an object, his body an object, punching or even something metaphorical as considering everything made of atoms or that everything is an object on a universal scale.


    Nothing worked.


    Sam sighed in defeat. ¡°I have no idea if that even wo-¡± He interrupted his sentence as the Launching pulse activated. It seemed to hit decently as if he properly backhand slapped Janik¡¯s hand aside.


    ¡°Ow!¡± Janik exclaimed, looking at his hand with an almost annoyed expression as he shook it a little. ¡°You did it!¡± His annoyance at the discomfort changed instantly into being happy for Sam, his smile returned and he looked stoked. ¡°You figured it out!¡±


    Retracing his steps, Sam tried to find out what was going on. He couldn¡¯t activate it for many tests, but something in his mind made it work. When activating the launching he instinctively considered it throwing, or launching as the descriptive name explained it. That let him launch it much like a crossbow, or perhaps closer to a gun or cannon. Not with the same force, naturally, but the vague concept of an expanding force propelling something made sense. It then also made sense that it might not translate into the punch... slap... push... thing that he just did. But what did he do? There was something that made it work. He was considering the force as a slap or push? A punch? Grabbing his hand to test again he retraced the thinking, none of which worked. What was it he was thinking to make it work? It happened when gave up, when he stopped trying too hard. Just thinking about activating the pulse into the hand but not considering any rules, definitions or a-


    There was a sharp pulse in his hands, his Psyhand felt nothing negative or unpleasant but his normal hand felt the force of a dull punch. It hurt but didn¡¯t directly damage him. Like Janik, he instinctively shook his hand almost like trying to shake the discomfort away. This was interesting, weird, but interesting. He placed the Psyhand against the asphalt as he walked, trying to mimic the feeling, not trying to make the ability work like this, just allowing it to send the pulse into the ground. The energy pulsed and his Psyhand recoiled, the ground being that much stronger than his meagre strength had it rebound, but it worked!


    [ Utility skill unlocked: Force Pulse. ]


    A window popped up in his vision, explaining an unlocked skill. He looked at it with extreme surprise on his face, an expression almost to that of winning the lottery.


    ¡°What? What¡¯s going on?¡± Janik asked, not being able to see the same thing as Sam.


    Sam focused on the information window more than on Janik¡¯s question. Though he didn¡¯t reply he had a similar question as Janik did.


    [ Force Pulse: Create the Force Launch pulse at the location of a Psyhand.


    Cost: 1 Energy per Pulse. ]


    He mused on this for a moment, currently he could make 9 hands. Alternatively, he could make 4 hands, deliver 4 pulses and use one point to expand his Area. Or some mix like that.


    ¡°It seems I unlocked a utility skill. When I found out how to trigger the force without throwing anything, the system listed it as a skill.¡± Sam was confused, happy abut confused. He didn¡¯t know of this happening before, it probably had but he hadn¡¯t heard or read about it.


    ¡°What?¡± Janik looked almost as confused as Sam was. ¡°I know you get a skill at Level 10, but... you¡¯re not there yet, right?¡±


    ¡°No, not yet.¡± Sam kept looking at the info window more than his confused friend.


    ¡°Then... That¡¯s interesting. Skill Crystals is one thing, I have heard of Players getting skills as rewards for special quests but... just randomly like that?¡± He didn¡¯t sound as much confused as trying to analyse the situation.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a new skill, as much as a way for the System to... let me easier use a skill differently? It¡¯s the same as the launching thing, just... that I punch with it instead.¡± It wasn¡¯t a punch, but it felt strangely logical to imagine it like that.


    He kept testing it, there were some rocks and debris around, though the area was cleaned when the place originally had a massive tower grow up through the ground, it was still in a somewhat sense of disrepair. He placed a Psyhand against a lamppost, it was much too heavy for him to Launch it, but almost to prove a point he activated the Force Launch ability, and nothing happened as expected. Activating the Force Pulse ability had the metal tube making up the post ring with the punch, it wasn¡¯t extremely powerful but was enough to give it a decent punch. Placing four Psyhands on it, placing them in the same spot, he activated the Pulse on all of them at the same time.


    The following sound was substantially heavier. If the first one could be compared to slamming a palm onto a table, the second was like slamming a fist against the same table, the force you can give with that little change is considerable. He didn¡¯t know the difference in force between his lifting and Pulse force, but the combined lifting force of four Psyhands was 760gram/1.67lbs, he didn¡¯t know how much more force went into throwing an object than lifting it, but it should be a substantial increase.


    ¡°It¡¯s stronger, but not insanely so. It sounds like a solid slam, though.¡± Sam analysed, wanting to find the limits of the skill to imagine its possibilities.


    Janik looked at him eagerly, reacting to the sounds of the lamppost and looking surprisingly happy. ¡°That¡¯s amazing... I need to look into that but... Does this mean you can punch people now?¡±


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    ¡°I... think so, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll do a lot of damage... I just need to find a good way to use this.¡± Sam replied pondering. He could punch now, with more force than he could lift, which was relatively normal for punching... he thought... He hadn¡¯t done much punching in his life but just logically.


    ¡°No, I think this is better than you think.¡± Janik excitedly broke into Sam¡¯s thinking. ¡°You might not be able to hit that hard but think of the possibilities. Aim at someone''s eyes, your hands are invisible. Or at their legs when running, imagine getting punched in the side of your ankle as you step... If someone punches your hand as you hold a weapon. Or even stab someone and punch the blade further in, that¡¯d sure do something, no?¡± He didn¡¯t seem entirely sure what to use for himself, but like earlier he had some good ideas.


    If you compared this to normal arm usage, if you stab someone or something with a dagger, and then punch the dagger further in, your punch should give it that extra oomph, alternatively, when you walk or run your body is doing some mightly complex calculations in balance and where everything goes, it¡¯s easy enough to faceplant when walking normally because you step on a rock, now imagine a targeted and timed attack at your joints as you move around. Disarming someone by attacking their hands when they aren¡¯t expecting it or going for critical areas.


    It won¡¯t deliver the same damage as a stab with the floating daggers, but the daggers can be seen, dodged and need to work through resistances, the Force Pulses were listed as utility; he wouldn¡¯t be aiming to do damage with them.


    He was getting a bit excited with this now.


    ¡°Those are good ideas... Very good ideas.¡± Sam mused to himself. ¡°Though I need to know just how powerful the attacks are to use them properly...¡± Sam was eyeing Janik as a joke, not intending to attack him.


    ¡°Oh, you want to try them out on me? Sure, why not? But you¡¯re paying for the potions if I get hurt.¡± He smugly smiled.


    This caught Sam quite off guard, he did it as a joke expecting a negative response, if nothing else for a joke. But the fact that he was on board? The punches sounded decent, but it didn¡¯t sound like something harder than most people could punch, especially not the single Psyhand punch.


    ¡°Ok, I¡¯m game for that.¡± Sam was going to take the day off anyway, so he might as well have some fun before he turned in for the night.


    Finding themselves in a training room, much like the one they were in before, Janik had picked up some wooden swords and was walking around the room like nothing was going on. Sam was trying to have him trip by attacking his legs with a single punch, it landed with surprising power compared to his lifting power, but perhaps because he was expecting it or his timing was off, he just couldn¡¯t make it happen.


    Changing to landing a Force Pulse on his ankle just as he was about to step down had Janik stumbling forward for two steps before regaining balance.


    ¡°Ohfuck! You almost had me there!¡± He got back up properly. ¡°If I wasn¡¯t prepared for it, I would have kissed the floor.¡± Janik had a kind of infectious and supportive happiness, he looked genuinely happy on Sam¡¯s behalf, even though he had been punched in the knees and ankles for a few minutes.


    Sam smiled back, he was very happy that it was working, but he also wanted to try to use the moment. Placing a Psyhand on his left hand he let the Pulse loose, it slapped his hand hard but not enough to have him drop the sword.


    ¡°Oh, good try! But I think you should aim for the fingers, they are much more fragile than the top of the hand.¡± As he explained he used his other hand to point to his attacked hand. ¡°There are more nerves in the fingers, and when something happens to them you are more likely to react.¡±


    They continued testing, and though it worked wondrously several times, it seemed more and more unlikely to work on Janik as he was expecting everything. After being hit by one hand several times he allowed Sam to punch him as hard as he could in his gut, tightening his muscles right before he did so. Sam was hesitant but placed his four hands on his gut and triggered the Pulse after he saw Janik was ready. He reacted but not dramatically so, looking not much worse than if Sam himself had punched him, with his lacking physical prowess.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s not as bad as I thought. I felt it, I really did, but it was manageable.¡± Looking at his stomach almost like he expected to see something, he continued. ¡°I¡¯d say the force is similar to an average, untrained jab. It¡¯s not enough to do severe damage but if I wasn¡¯t prepared for it and you hit, say, my kidneys, solar plexus, nuts or eyes. Yeah, I would most likely have gone down, at the very least it would fuck me up a bit for a while.¡± Brushing off his stomach he was satisfied as he didn¡¯t find anything.


    Sam took the compliment and information, it was good to know roughly where the power landed. They continued for a while with various tests, he was never able to disarm Janik, but that felt more like being too prepared for it to properly mimic the reaction of suddenly having your fingers slapped.


    When testing adding the pulse to attacks, using a thin wooden dagger he swung it at Janik¡¯s defence, but just as it was about to connect he activated the Pulse. This hit harder but was considerably harder to aim. It could be a damage boost but at the cost of accuracy, probably better for larger targets or when he could take his time to line it up properly. Not wanting to test the damage output on Janik, they decided to wait with that.


    Splitting up for the night, Sam went to sell the stuff they got from the Dungeon, getting the needed info from Janik to give him half of the money for the Goblin Cores, which was fair, though Sam did everything it was only due to Janik¡¯s support he felt safe enough to do what he did.


    The cores went for $2300 in total, splitting them up for 1150 for each of them. He also sold the Aether Crystals from the Random box, but they just went for $25 each, but that was still another 75 which totalled Sam¡¯s share today a nice $1225. He was incredibly happy that, though he was a bit reckless at the end, his half of the money for today would keep him going for that long. It was also a surprising amount of money in his mind, even though the danger they faced. Using this as an average, it also meant that once he got to the point of handling that dungeon alone, he could expect almost $2400 a run, which would keep him roomed and fed for up to two weeks depending on what he did, and that¡¯s considering the relatively expensive room at TAC.


    He was surprisingly excited when it came to money.


    Having them send Janik¡¯s half to him, he had his full name so it wasn¡¯t problematic finding him in the system, he headed for his room. Entering it and closing the door behind him gave him a strange sense of relief, though this wasn¡¯t his apartment, house or anything, it felt surprisingly nice living alone. Though he wasn¡¯t entirely alone, he had Elara, who on further inspection looked surprisingly down.


    ¡°Are... are you ok?¡± Sam asked her questioningly.


    ¡°I...¡± She stopped herself and seemed to be processing or at least thinking about something.


    Sam found it a bit weird but also interesting in a positive way that she was expressive enough that he could understand her facial expressions, not something he had expected to see on a snake.


    ¡°I want to do more for you.¡± She either found the courage to speak up or completed her thoughts. ¡°You said you didn¡¯t want me to attack until I was stronger, you didn¡¯t want me dying as soon as I attacked.¡± She seemed almost depressed at the statement like he had metaphorically caged or restrained her.


    ¡°Err...¡± This took him a bit off guard. He said something like that, but in his mind, it was just that he didn¡¯t want her to get attacked and die, based on her health and the damage the Goblins did, he thought she might just get one shot if they got a hold of her. Not even considering her value as an item, but more as a friend he was responsible for. He just didn¡¯t want anyone he cared about to die around him.


    The problem here seemed to be the weight his words carried to her, the System explained that she would be loyal to a fault, meaning that telling her this was the same as ordering her not to attack or just to keep hidden until she was strong enough... Not considering her feelings in this.


    ¡°I... I¡¯ll admit I didn¡¯t consider that... Not used to this whole master-servant thing...¡± He sheepishly smiled as he reached his hand out to the counter in the kitchen, letting her slither down and coil up, getting a better conversation angle than having her on his shoulder.


    ¡°But the solution there is easy, we just need to discuss it a bit and find out a way for this to work.¡± His smile turned honest at the end, he didn¡¯t intend to ¡®keep her down¡¯ but more wanted her to be safe. At least until she was stronger and could take a hit or two. Not that he was doing that much better but he was armoured and geared, perhaps there was something similar he could give her?


    ¡°I would like that.¡± Elara smiled back, her tongue flicking out between the tip of her lips before it retracted again.


    They didn¡¯t share any emotional bonds, but he could tell she felt happier just from that. Which in turn made him feel a little better about the situation.


    [ Conditions met. ]


    A window popped up in his field of view causing his heart to almost stop.


    Sam¡¯s expression turned into a slight panic as the Solo Dungeon¡¯s events flashed past his mental eye.


    ¡°Fuuuuck...¡±

 Ch.021 - Conditions met

    Sam panicked, trying to look around and ensure he had everything to get ready. Seconds after the window popped up a small loading bar manifested beneath it and started flowing down.


    [ Conditions met.


    [¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€?] ]


    Picking up a charging cable, and a power bank, making sure he had potions on him, all his weapons, and armour were good and he frantically picked up Elara and draped her around his neck. She looked confused but didn¡¯t seem to argue and rather coiled up like she had done before.


    [ Conditions met.


    [¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€??] ]


    The window didn¡¯t mention a Solo Dungeon but didn¡¯t explain what was happening. Sam panicked more than before. This felt almost taunting, like the system fucking with him on purpose rather than explaining what it was and counting down to that.


    [ Conditions met.


    [¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€???] ]


    ¡°What¡¯s going on, Master?¡± Elara asked with a worried expression and tone.


    ¡°There is a System window with a countdown. There wasn¡¯t a countdown last time I was sent to a horrible place... Just... Preparing this time.¡± He focused, almost as a mental stare, at the window to the side in his view.


    Rushing through the time he could, he took some complimentary fruits, snacks and water around the room, shoving it all in his backpack as he prepared for the worst. Janik never took the flashlight back so that also went in a pocket, ready to be used.


    [ Conditions met.


    [????????] ]


    As time expired he was as ready as he could be, mentally preparing for something horrible his eyes widened as the window closed and a new one opened in its stead.


    [ Ascendancy approved ]


    His mind raced, he was somewhat annoyed, curious and confused at the same time. Wasn¡¯t he going to be sent to a Solo Dungeon? Was this just a step before something worse would happen? Not to mention, the fuck was Ascendancy?


    Focusing on the window with the word, on the word specifically as he had done with everything else he wondered about, had an information window pop up.


    [ Ascendancy system


    A Player with the Ascendancy system gains access to upgrades to an existing Skill or Ability if they complete challenges. ]


    Sam picked up a chair he had knocked over in haste and sat down, staring at this poorly explained bit of information. He wondered why this was a thing, how it was a thing and what was going on. Why he was chosen for it and... well... Just what was going on?


    If this worked as he thought based on the explanation, he would get a challenge, perhaps a list of challenges, and if he completed them he would get upgrades. That was... really interesting.


    He was nearing level 10, at which he would get a Class Skill or Ability. In some cases, it was just a new ability, in other cases it was a passive upgrade or something. In his interest, before he became a Player he had read a lot about things. It was never a preset thing, two warriors with the same stats could get different abilities, or the same ability with different power levels, one might be 5% and another might be 10%. The System wasn¡¯t fair and seemed to do as it pleased. But now there was an Ascendancy system? Something that could upgrade already existing skills? Though, in all his time of reading and absorbing content surrounding the Players, he had never heard of the Ascendancy system.


    Being extremely relieved and happy that this didn¡¯t send him into a Solo Dungeon, he ended up just confused. Still relieved and happy but confused.


    ¡°Master....¡± Elara still sounded worried, moving herself around him so she could extend a part of her out, letting her turn around and look at him properly. ¡°Is there something I can do to help?¡±


    Sam chuckled. The situation was weird and he was still not used to having Elara around, but he still welcomed the worry. ¡°No, I¡¯m fine, don¡¯t worry about it.¡±


    Giving her a scratch under her chin, which she seemed to like a lot. ¡°I just panicked when the Conditions window popped up... The last time was not fun. But this time it has given me... something, I don¡¯t know yet, I think I¡¯ll ask Janik about it tomorrow.¡±


    Relaxing much more now that he wasn¡¯t sent anywhere weird, he could properly think about the situation. Taking the moment to put things from his backpack back in their place, especially the fruit. He calmed down from his adrenaline panic.


    Elara seemed like she relaxed more as well. Right now he felt like showering, the attack by the Goblin Chief had covered him in blood, both his own and the goblin¡¯s once he shanked him. The blood was splattered over his clothing as well as Elara''s body, as she was coiled around his neck and shoulders at the time. It was cleanup time!


    The armour and clothing were cleaned easily enough, the clothing he just threw in the wash but the armour he cleaned by hand, not knowing if it was a good idea for that to tumble about in a machine or not.


    ¡°So... I have no idea how to clean you... Or if you do that yourself...¡± Sam honestly commented to his companion. ¡°Do I just fill the sink with water? Do you shower?¡± He was a bit confused, interested at the same time as the alien nature of this became intriguing.


    ¡°My scales are good at cleaning themselves, so you don¡¯t need to clean me normally, but sticky things like blood are a bit harder to just peel off.¡± She smiled as she gladly explained about herself. ¡°I can bathe myself if I get access to warm water, or you can shower me if that¡¯s easier.¡±


    Sam had gotten over the weirdness of her being an animal but also a sapient creature, so the act of cleaning her itself wasn¡¯t as weird as it would have been just yesterday, but he just didn¡¯t know the best way to do it. But it seemed the easiest way was to just let her handle it on her own. He plugged in the sink in the bathroom with the rubber plug, and since she was surprisingly dexterous with her tail he let her handle the water.


    He took a shower to get the gore off himself, and as he dried himself he gave her a bundled-up towel to crawl against and into, both of them being clean afterwards. He ate some food afterwards, she felt fine and didn¡¯t need any food yet, she had fed just yesterday. This part of her biology was still strange for him but he did consider something she said. Being a snake she had a snake mind in addition to her intelligence, explaining that she would like to hunt something he was considering letting her do that at times. However, that would probably be easier outside as he didn¡¯t know if it was a good idea to let a mouse loose in the room.


    The rest of the day went for relaxing, he spoke and spent some time with Elara, who loved the attention but seemed to be more supportive or wanting the situation to be positive for Sam. He also spent some time trying to do some simple research on the Ascendance system, but he couldn¡¯t find anything besides certain companies having the name or using it as part of their slogan. It didn¡¯t feel right that he was the only one who had it, though, he thought it might just be a rare thing and not documented that well. Janik could know more, if not then he¡¯d just check with TAC tomorrow.


    Waking up the next day he felt good, he had a brief scare with Meeting some Conditions last night, thinking he was going to be sent to a Solo Dungeon, but that didn¡¯t happen so he got a good night¡¯s rest.


    One major change was that there was a new System window in his view, one that wasn¡¯t there when he went to sleep.


    [ Ascendant Challenge 1/2


    1: Pickpocket something from another player.


    -Condition: Do not get caught.


    Rewards:


    A significant boost to an ability. ]


    He felt a bit weird about it, but it wasn¡¯t too problematic, he would bring this up with Janik when he spoke with him. Checking his phone he had already gotten a text from Janik, requesting when it worked for them to meet up.


    Checking his health it was back at max, the night had restored it so that part was good. And since Sam wanted to ask him some questions it might be better if they just met up at TAC. He replied to the text saying that he was awake now, just going to eat some breakfast so they could meet up in the cafeteria.


    Going through his morning routine he found himself in the cafeteria, geared up, a snake collared around his neck and ready to go. The complimentary breakfast was simple enough to get and he was halfway done eating by the time Janik found him. Sitting down he smiled as he often did. ¡° ¡®sup, fucker. You ready to go to Aetheria?¡±


    The banter was nice, he wasn¡¯t entirely used to it since before the event happened, but he had friends back then so it wasn¡¯t an uncommon thing. Friends often called each other things like that, but it felt illogically unnatural to reply in the same way.


    ¡°Oh, I am. But I have a question.¡±


    Janik focused on Sam properly, looking eager to aid.


    ¡°Have you heard something about an Ascendance system?¡± Sam asked straight out, adding an extra questioning tone to confirm that he had no idea himself.


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    ¡°Ascendance system?¡± Janik thought about it for a few seconds. ¡°Not that I can remember, no. What¡¯s that?¡± His face went from an expression of trying to think of if he knew something to curiosity when he turned the question back to Sam.


    ¡°I... I don¡¯t know. A System message explained that I was approved for something like that. I couldn¡¯t find anything good on the net about it either. It seems to... boost me if I do some challenges?¡± Sam was honest with his expression, but at the same time, he decided to try and play with Janik. He felt confident that if he stole something from him, as long as he returned it and explained the situation, it wouldn¡¯t be a problem. Manifesting several Psyhands, wanting to make sure he could handle the weight, he got ready to steal whatever he could get his hands on from his pockets.


    ¡°That¡¯s strange. It sounds good but... what kind of boost... or what kind of challenges?¡±


    Sam had reached into his pocket and grabbed his phone with his hands, but he couldn¡¯t pull that out without him noticing. There was a simple way of handling that, a misdirection.


    Fake-looking up he looked nowhere in particular and faked a confused expression, it was dumb but worked enough for him to look towards where he was looking.


    ¡°What, what¡¯s going on?¡± He looked in that direction for a few seconds but didn¡¯t see anything, logically enough. As he turned back towards Sam, Sam clapped his hands once in front of his face. This started him a little bit, at the same moment he used his Psyhand to pull the phone out of his pocket.


    Janik used a few seconds of confusion before finally looking at him properly. ¡°The fuck was that for?¡±


    [ Ascendant Challenge 1/2


    Pickpocket something from another player.


    -Condition: Do not get caught. - Completed! ]


    He was very happy when he saw the completion of the extra mission. Moving the phone under the table to his normal hands, he placed it on top of the table between them.


    As soon as Janik saw it he reacted as one normally would, he checked his pocket and when his phone was missing his eyes narrowed towards Sam. ¡°Explain.¡±


    Sliding his phone back to Janik, Sam fessed up. ¡°You asked about the challenges... The first one I got was to steal something from another player without getting caught. This felt like the safest and best way to do that... I¡¯m sorry, but I didn¡¯t want to actually steal something... so...¡± He looked honestly apologetic and didn¡¯t look like he felt good about succeeding in his ploy.


    ¡°Well... I suppose it¡¯s fine...¡± Janik didn¡¯t seem like he liked the breach of trust.


    Sam¡¯s expression changed, it went from his apologetic face to a happy one, he had just completed the first of a two-step challenge, after all, but his expression ended up sinking.


    [ Ascendant Challenge 2/2


    1: Pickpocket something from another player.


    -Condition: Do not get caught. - Completed!


    2: Kill another player


    Rewards:


    A significant boost to an ability. ]


    ¡°What, what¡¯s going on?¡± Janik broke in, seeming to have realised something was wrong.


    ¡°Well... I succeeded in the first step...¡±


    ¡°... And?¡±


    ¡°The second step is to kill a Player.¡± Sam didn¡¯t sound entirely fine with this.


    ¡°Ah... yeah... I can see that being a problem...¡± Janik sat back in his chair, putting the phone back in his pocket. ¡°What¡¯s the reward? Perhaps you can drop it if it¡¯s not worth it?¡±


    ¡°It reads ¡®A significant boost to an ability¡¯. The System will boost an existing ability according to the info.¡± Sitting back in his chair as well, feeling slightly defeated already.


    ¡°Well... A significant boost is very good. The System doesn¡¯t use those kinds of words lightly.¡± As he explained he looked to the ceiling, seeming to be thinking and staring into nothing more than actually looking there. ¡°There are PvPers if you want to go down that route...¡±


    Sam didn¡¯t consider that initially, but he had a good point. Some players focused on, or at least dabbled in, Player killing. Camping out in Aetheria was listed as a dangerous thing to do, not just because of natural predators and such, but also because of the PvPers. A lot of Players went missing when out and about, from monsters mostly but it was almost impossible to track the times that other Players went the cause of this. The only reason this was known was because of survivors or the times the PvPers bit off more than they could chew. They didn¡¯t always survive but given how much a Player tended to sink into gear, killing a Player and stealing their gear for personal use or selling, was lucrative enough to make this a legit business.


    Though it¡¯s heavily frowned on, the lack of proper policing outside of settlements in Aetheria meant that this was assumed to happen relatively often.


    ¡°I understand that this might be a problematic thing to co-¡± Janik¡¯s sentence was interrupted by Sam breaking in.


    With a surprisingly emotionless expression, Sam interrupted his explanation. ¡°I¡¯m fine with it.¡±


    Originally he thought about it and it didn¡¯t feel right, to kill another Player like that. But as soon as the PvPers were mentioned he started considering things. His Player journey started because a Player abused his powers, he was broken and fucked up, though he didn¡¯t regret it anymore he was also wrongfully fired because of it. The pain and agony he went through, lucky to be healed from becoming a Player, left him broken and very hurt.


    Considering the minimal problems he went through compared to what certain other Players were doing, some took enjoyment in dishing out pain or drawing it out, according to testimonials he had read. Remembering that he didn¡¯t have many problems trying to swing the bat at the Player who attacked him in the store. Though not directly related, he had been through some shit when living on the streets as well, he hadn¡¯t killed for food but he had gone far in self-defence a few times. All of this boiled down to not feeling like it was a problem to kill a Player who is out to hurt or kill others.


    Janik¡¯s expression changed from a supportive comforting to a strange, not disturbed but slightly shocked one. ¡°Hold on. You¡¯re fine with it?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. I wouldn¡¯t be fine killing some innocent or good Player. But in short, my past experiences have given me... flexible morals.¡± He didn¡¯t go into depth, but he lived mainly on begging and stealing for a while, self-defence became a necessity. ¡°It''s not that I want to kill anyone-¡± Putting pressure on the word ¡®want¡¯. ¡°-but before I became a Player I was attacked by one, he practically caved in my face and fucked my life. I was lucky to become a Player that very night so all my wounds were healed but... I was in bad shape...¡±


    In Sam¡¯s eyes, the Players who focused on fucking up the life of other Players and who didn¡¯t want part of PvP didn¡¯t deserve to be here. Much like certain criminals, Players or normal people, they didn¡¯t need to exist. Already having a somewhat revenge-like relationship with the System itself, it strangely fit with his goals at the time. Powering up his abilities would make it at least a bit easier to fight back against the bullshit it threw at them.


    The irony of him now possibly setting out to find and kill a Player was not lost on him, but who the target Player is, was the difference.


    ¡°Huh...¡± Janik was surprised. ¡°I¡¯ll be honest that I didn¡¯t expect that.¡± He didn¡¯t look angry or too opposed to Sam¡¯s explanation, just surprised.


    Ironically, this surprised Sam. Though Janik was a supportive man, his accepting this part felt a bit strange. ¡°Well, I¡¯ll be honest as well, I didn¡¯t expect you to sound so... on board with this...¡±


    Janik used a few seconds before answering, his expression was contemplative, like he wondered how he should word it. ¡°The thing is, the PvP fucks I have zero problems seeing disappear. There¡¯s enough shit in the world already, the main problem is that... Players focusing on this kind of stuff are usually good at it.¡±


    Sam considered this for a moment, he had a good point. If they had been doing this for a while then it makes sense that they could have some special Skills or just have a proper mindset. Hunting an animal and hunting a person are two very different things, the addition of intelligence is dangerous, for both sides.


    ¡°Well... What does this mean, then?¡± Sam realised that without planning it, their conversation had lowered in volume, as soon as killing players became the topic, as they were in the public cafeteria, they somewhat changed tone a bit.


    ¡°Well, the plan was to go to Aetheria today, explore and see what we find. I don¡¯t think we should actively hunt Players, but if we happen to meet some...¡± He had a specific tone on ¡®happen¡¯, it was clear that he didn¡¯t like Players fighting other people, it felt more personal than just dislike.


    Sam was certain he had been through something but decided not to pry.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine with that.¡± Sam smiled as he finished the drink that came with his breakfast. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±


    Janik got up as Sam cleaned up the things he used for breakfast and moved them to a trash and stacking station like many fast-food places have. Before they set off to the Tower Sam popped into his room to pick up the TAC backpack with gear, never a bad thing to be prepared.

 Ch.022 - PvP

    Finding themselves in front of the gargantuan tower in the middle of New York, they walked towards the area of its influence. Janik was pondering as they walked and started a conversation.


    ¡°How much do you know about the Fields in Aetheria?¡± He didn¡¯t look in Sam¡¯s direction when asking but was rather focused on the tower itself.


    ¡°I was in the first level a few days ago, and I know we have managed to beat three of them, unlocking the fourth level.¡± Sam went into loose detail about the different Floors. The first one was the grass and woods plains, the second was just mountains and caves, the third was a large island in the middle of a huge ocean, and the fourth was a world of floating islands. Nobody knew how to beat the fourth floor yet.


    He also mentioned that when a new floor opened it lead to a massive influx of players going there, many getting rich in new resources before things stabilized. Still, many also died to the unknown dangers.


    ¡°That¡¯s a good starting point.¡± Janik commented as they moved closer to the Tower. ¡°I think we should both hit level 20 before we go to the second Floor, just for safety¡¯s sake.¡± He smiled.


    Sam knew there were rough level brackets for known monsters on the different Floors, though that didn¡¯t mean that all of them were equal. Two level 5 monsters of the same race could have vastly different stats depending on their Rank, one could be trivial and the other a group Player fight. This is why the Scanning skills were in such high demand, the main problem was their scarcity so not everyone had a chance to get one. Based on what Janik had said before, he had at least the lowest rank, he mentioned that he could see the Health of targets around, or lower than his power. That was a good starting point and could stop you from going into a bad situation. Aiming to at least be on the same level as the expected lower-tier monsters was a good idea.


    Sam nodded in agreement to Janik¡¯s statement, he intended to live as long as possible as well, so avoiding to go in against too much power was often a good idea.


    Coming within the Tower¡¯s influence the System message asking if they wanted to enter Aetheria popped up. As they accepted the warm white light enveloped them like before and they found themselves in the Plains of Floor One. The grassy plains, forests, gentle pleasant breeze and sun stretched far into the distance. The only thing stopping them from reaching the horizon was the mountain range that stretched around the whole place. It was still massive enough that driving cross country with a modern car would take a few hours. Though the towers around the world were massive, they weren¡¯t large enough to keep even a part of this inside them.


    Near the landing area of the first floor was a village, it was the same one that the newbie group walked through the other day,


    ¡°So... what are the plans here, anyway?¡± Sam asked Janik. He knew they were going here today but besides perhaps finding a PvPer, he didn¡¯t know of any plans for why they went here instead of some Dungeons.


    ¡°Ah, mainly a change of pace.¡± Janik replied as he started walking in a seemingly random direction. ¡°There are plenty of monster camps, groups or just roaming creatures to fight. We might even get lucky and find an unexplored cave or whatever, they sometimes pop up even today.¡±


    Sam had heard of this, though the first Floor had been accessible for quite some time now, there were still new things discovered in it.


    They spent considerable time roaming about, picking up plants and resources they came over. Sam¡¯s Psyhands made the poison or unstable things much easier to handle, avoiding the need for clumsy gloves or being too careful, as long as it was properly bagged or jarred, it was safe to handle afterwards. Exploring like this felt surprisingly nice, just walking about and seeing nature. Not something Sam was too used to, having lived in the city all his life. There were parks and the off out of town trips when he was young, but this was something else entirely. Elara also enjoyed it, being able to slither between plants and hunt the fieldmice, managing to snatch one she almost beamed with pride when she showed Sam, before consuming the dead creature whole. Sam had seen videos of this happen so it wasn¡¯t weird on its own, but the fact that he saw Elara as a person made it an interesting contrast in his mind.


    The only combat they saw today was a few Goblins who decided they could attack them, needless to say, they didn¡¯t stand a chance as level 1 scrubs. They didn¡¯t have anything of interest on them, too weak to have a proper Core to be harvested and not even enough XP for Elara to level up. Outside of that the day was extremely uneventful. The sightseeing was nice, but not much to speak about.


    Setting up camp for the night, a simple camping set was part of the TAC gear they brought, Sam felt a bit weird when it came to camping. On one hand, it was an interesting change of pace, on the other, having lived on the streets this just kind of felt like it hit home in a weird way.


    The addition of a fire, that Janik lit with a normal lighter and some dry twigs and leaves, changed the experience dramatically, it turned pleasant and interesting instead of a cold concrete corner or trying to find some heat-exhaust from a large building to sit in. Just sitting around a fire, even though it wasn¡¯t that cold in the area, was extremely comforting and relaxing. Janik had started heating some food by placing it on a warm stone near the fire, Elara was coiled up surprisingly close to the fire, soaking the heat, and Sam was sitting there, playing with the sticks within the fire with his Psyhands.


    Knowing from earlier testing, it was still strangely illogical in his mind to feel and touch things in the fire and embers, without feeling the pain or discomfort of the heat. He could do whatever he wanted in there while at a safe and pleasant range. They mainly talked about what was going on, some chatting about the versatility of the Psyhands given how he could feel with them, but they couldn¡¯t be touched in return, and just random chatting about their thoughts of things.


    Eventually turning in for the night, they woke up the next morning as the sun grew bright enough to become a nuisance. Getting out of his little tent and stretching he looked around. Janik was still sleeping, Elara woke up as he moved around in the one-man tent and was slithering out as well, she aimed to slither over to the fire looking for hotspots to pause nearby.


    Sam didn¡¯t want to wake Janik up, and he didn¡¯t think there was a need to reignite the campfire as they were leaving once he woke anyway, so he used the time to pack down his small camp instead. Janik woke up during the process and joined in packing down his stuff as well.


    ¡°Well, well, well, what¡¯s all this then?¡± A voice asked from the forest, causing both of them to turn around. Janik instinctively grabbed both his swords but didn¡¯t pull them right away.


    As Sam turned to the voice he saw a man, looking to be in his 30s somewhere, with short brown hair, a nice set of leather armour, a sheathed dagger at each hip, a few throwing knives along a bandoleer on his chest and what looked like a small quick-access bag on his hip.


    ¡°I don¡¯t suppose I can persuade you to just leave your stuff here and leave, can I? That dagger of yours looks pretty nice.¡± The man commented with a smile as he eyed the ornate handle of Sam¡¯s Vampiric blade.


    Janik pulled his swords but stopped before they got properly out of their sheath, Sam noticed a woman who was just standing behind Janik, she had a knife against his throat, and he could see that she was holding a second dagger against his back. Sam hadn¡¯t seen or noticed her before. She was about his height, had long black hair in a high ponytail, athletic build and a tight-fitted chest piece that almost looked like a leather corset.


    ¡°I suggest you don¡¯t do that.¡± She smiled with an alluring voice.


    Janik complied and lifted his hands, showing that he was doing as told. The swords were a bit less than halfway pulled out but he couldn¡¯t do anything with them, lest his throat got a new opening.


    ¡°Good, good. You seem to get it.¡± The bandit commented as Janik gave in.


    Sam thought about a few things. The first was that he was kind of lucky to have PvPers show up on the first night, but that sort of made sense. They had probably tagged them, at least Sam, as a new player in this place. And stalking them was probably a simple way of getting hold of them. Though he didn¡¯t know why they didn¡¯t strike in the night rather than wait for the morning. If it was him he would just attack when his target slept.


    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you attack last night? Why now?¡± Sam asked, his curiosity getting the best of him.


    ¡°Well, we were busy last night.¡± The man replied with a lecherous smile. It was clear that they spent the night together in more ways than one.


    It was still kind of interesting that they got to Sam and Janik this early in the morning. And it was a strong hint that this was not a spur-of-the-moment thing, they took the time to be intimate before doing this, so...


    ¡°And don¡¯t get any ideas.¡± The man added as he pulled one of his daggers in his left hand and a throwing knife in his right. ¡°I don¡¯t see any mana on either of you.¡± He pointed the dagger in Sam¡¯s direction. ¡°You only have 35 health, even with a good piece of armour I can kill you before you get a hit in, and you-¡± He moved the dagger over to point at Janik. ¡°Even your 140 health will disappear at a double critical damage from my lovely associate here~¡± He drew out the tone of the end of his sentence, cementing the statement.


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Sam considered this for a brief moment, he didn¡¯t know how all the math would work without calculating them properly, but considering that critical hits were double damage and that she had two weapons, he expected her to do much more damage than he could do with the Vampiric blade, meaning a double crit sounded like it could easily clear 140. Not to mention his meagre 35 health... Perhaps he should consider raising his vitality...


    Not expecting that fighting other players would be easy, he somewhat didn¡¯t expect to be ambushed right away like this... And judging by Janik¡¯s face, neither did he.


    His mind was racing, what should he do, what was the smartest thing to do, they looked and acted professionally, this was not their first time doing this. He needed a distraction, if he could get the man¡¯s attention away, he could get the woman¡¯s blades away from Janik, that would let him do his thing. But what could he do?


    The answer was stupidly simple, to the point that had it not been for the situation, he would have slapped his forehead in shame. He just needed a sound!


    Manifesting a Psyhand as far away as he could, extending the distance to its max gave him one hand moving 22m/70ft away, this was plenty. Picking up a stick from the ground, light enough for him to move, he hit it against a tree.


    This caused the stick to make the expected noise from the interaction, as well as breaking. Both the man and woman¡¯s heads snapped towards it, in the man¡¯s case this forced him to turn his head around as well as parts of his body.


    Perfect.


    Despawning everything to regain his energy, he manifested four of his Psyhands, two of them next to each of the woman¡¯s hands, facing her fingers. Activating the Force Pulse he slammed the energy into the finger-side of her hands, the total force estimated around 2kg/4.4lbs into each of her hands. His Psyhands were angled so that the force would move the blades away from his body, making sure that he didn¡¯t cut him with the interaction.


    Since he had time to line it up and plan, and this was completely unexpected for the two, his attack landed properly. She let out a loud yelling swear in pain and shock as the force wrenched both daggers from her grip.


    Janik seemed like he was waiting for it as he instantly grabbed both handles of his sword, and in one fluid movement, he turned around, pulled them and whipped them past her throat. It took a split second before any reaction happened besides her utter shock before copious amounts of blood started flowing from the wounds of his two slices.


    It seems he did the same to them as she intended to do to him.


    The man turned around, cocking his arm to make a throw, but Sam had already reacted. Using the two daggers the woman was using, and supplementing with two of his own, he sent four blades flying at the bandit man. He knew he didn¡¯t have the damage to one-shot him, but it should be enough to get some damage done.


    Having just turned around and not gotten a proper moment to handle what was going on, all of Sam¡¯s four attacks landed. Sam didn¡¯t take the proper time to aim so nothing hit a vital point, but he still landed four daggers, one being the Vampiric dagger, two of the female PvPer and one of his own.


    Sam¡¯s expression soured as the man smiled widely, even after all attacks landed. Not a drop of blood fell from him.


    Janik didn¡¯t intend to wait, even before the attack landed he had started moving towards the bandit, swords ready to strike.


    The bandit threw his dagger at Sam, expecting this he had already despawned one of the Psyhands, dropping the cheapest dagger, only to manifest it with one energy to spare in the path between them. As the dagger came flying in he managed to ¡®connect¡¯ with it and his Psyhand, activating Force Pulse was more than enough to send it off course, missing Sam entirely.


    As Janik got in close, the bandit was ready, he had pulled his other dagger and as Janik¡¯s slices came in, he parried them beautifully. Janik sliced again and again, but none of his attacks landed, all of them being parried effortlessly.


    Daggers again started flying as Sam knew what he needed to do, he had two proper choices, one was to try and disarm or fuck with the bandit, giving Janik an opening, but the second was what he went for. As Janik was keeping his focus, Sam moved all his daggers in behind the bandit, taking valuable seconds to line up his attack. He second-guessed his actions as a few solid hits made their way through to Janik, drawing an alarming amount of blood, but Sam focused on his plan.


    Finding an opening he sprung to action, though he was standing still and looking like he wasn¡¯t doing anything, it all happened behind the male bandit, four blades had slowly been creeping up behind him, aiming themselves from his flanks and suddenly darting inwards towards his neck. All four hit!


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    He had no idea how much damage got through, but this time it drew an alarming amount of blood from the man¡¯s neck. He still stood and still fought, but it affected his parrying ability considerably.


    Janik started landing hits, first one, then two, then a third. The man was looking like he was in horrible shape, but managing to bring his parrying back up, parrying Janik¡¯s attacks again and again. He tried looking around for the floating daggers, but this time Sam had another idea.


    Dropping some daggers he moved two of his Psyhands onto his face, somewhat grabbing or at least placing them over his eyes. Sam could tell that he felt something weird and tried to shake his head away from it, but it was too late. Activating a single Force Pulse in each hand aimed into his eyes. It wasn¡¯t enough to pop his eyeballs, the force was surprisingly considerable but due to how short-lived it was, and the fact that it was a non-damage ability, it didn¡¯t do any lasting damage, however, it messed with his ability to see properly.


    Sam moved the Vampiric dagger, as well as one of the daggers he stole from the woman, towards his throat. The Vampiric dagger missed entirely, he hadn¡¯t taken the time to line up the attack properly, but the borrowed dagger landed!


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    The dagger raked across his throat, this time the wound didn¡¯t seem to stop bleeding like many Player wounds tended to do, but rather pulsed out as the man, in panic dropped his daggers and grabbed his throat. As he tried to speak only gurgling sounds could be heard as he fell over to the side with his face in severe shock.


    [ Ascendant Challenge 2/2


    1: Pickpocket something from another player.


    -Condition: Do not get caught. - Completed!


    2: Kill another player - Completed!


    Rewards:


    A significant boost to an ability. ]


    The window was updated and listed both steps as completed. He didn¡¯t know if the man or woman triggered the completion, but his surprise when he looked at the XP log opened his eyes.


    [ Experience gained: +2000. ]


    [ Levelup +1! ]


    [ Companion Elara, level up +3! ]


    ¡°Oh shit, that¡¯s a lot of things.¡± Sam commented as he relaxed, not considering the gear around them yet.


    ¡°Yeah... PvP is lucrative, in gear as well as XP... Sadly.¡± Janik commented as he sat down on a rock, breathing heavily from exhaustion. Though his wounds had stopped bleeding, Sam could tell he was in decent, but at the same time surprisingly bad shape.


    ¡°You... doing ok?¡± Sam asked him with worry in his voice.


    ¡°Yeah... Fine now...¡± He took out a potion and uncorked it. ¡°Fucker took out 2/3rds of my health.¡±


    Sam was surprised, he didn¡¯t see more than two hits land. But his focus was split, the array of System messages had given him lots of things to consider!

 Ch.023 - Contract

    Now that Janik was looking better by the second, Sam focused on himself and the system messages in his view.


    First, he had levelled up, the choice there was simple, he put the extra point in Spirit and accepted it. Seconds after he did that he started second guessing if it was the best choice. He wondered that with the damage the bandits could have done, and monsters in the future would be doing, wouldn¡¯t it be better to build some defences? Perhaps Janik had some good input on that later.


    [ Level 10 reached second class skill granted: Weight Limit Increase.  ]


    Sam was unsure about this one. It was amazing, he wondered what he¡¯d get at Level 10, he thought it would be a new ability but he had heard that usually, it was something somewhat related to your play style. Checking the details it changed the math. Before it was the Spirit score x 10 grams/0.35oz, this changed into a 20x multiplier instead, so his Spirit x 20 grams/0.7oz. With the extra energy he got from the increase in Spirit, he could now manifest 10 hands, for a total lift weight of 4kg/8.8lbs.


    His mind was racing with the thoughts of this. Due to the weight increase, he could easily lift a dagger with one Psyhand, with enough force to spare to easily move them around. He was already carrying five daggers with the Vampiric Dagger, but the bandits had four more, so if he used them all he at least had nine!


    Noticing Elara slithering over to him, he crouched down and extended a hand for her to slither up and get back on her perch on his shoulder, as she did he put all her three points from levelling in Vitality, boosting her health and Venom ability. Her health was almost the same as Sam¡¯s was now, which was kind of interesting in one way.


    Now, after all of that was taken care of, he had two main thoughts left, checking what the bandits had on them and completing the Ascendant quest!


    Activating the latter, the quest window popped up again.


    [ Ascendant Challenge 2/2 - Completed


    Rewards: A significant boost to an ability. ]


    It requested confirmation to complete it, and there was no time like the present. Mentally focusing on completing it collapsed the window and opened a new one.


    [ Ascendant upgrade unlocked: Improved Psyhands. ]


    It didn¡¯t explain anything, so Sam had to open the information windows and compare the Improved to the normal one.


    [ Psyhands: Manifest telekinetic hand-like forces. ]


    [ Improved Psyhands: Manifest a pair of telekinetic hand-like forces. ]


    At first glance, it didn¡¯t seem too amazing, but he noticed the important difference: ¡®a pair of¡¯.


    Testing it right away he manifested Psyhands with a single point, as the text stated two Psyhands manifested at his sides.


    ¡°Oh...¡± Sam vocalised without considering it, looking surprised. Simple consideration meant that if he got two hands per Energy, and he had 10 Energy, he could manifest 20 hands. Test-lifting one of his daggers on the forest floor confirmed that each of the two hands had full weight capacity... This Ascendant boon doubled his weight limit yet again. He... he could have 20 daggers, or mix in other weapons, in the air with this...


    ¡°What?¡± Janik asked, looking much better after a few potions and a minute to catch his breath.


    ¡°Soooo... A few things happened...¡± Sam took a moment to briefly explain the upgrades, the ones to Elara weren¡¯t too over the top as it was normal levelling, but the two boosts he gained to himself were much more interesting.


    First, he explained the base weight increase, and how that changed the math into double weight, at this point he could single-hand wield daggers without problems. Second, the especially interesting one was the Improved Psyhands. It seemed he could choose to manifest just one hand by using the Psyhands ability, but there was never a reason to not manifest two hands, it took the same energy, the same amount of focus and everything, and they could all feel like normal hands.


    ¡°That¡¯s amazing.¡± Janik commented, almost looking baffled more than interested. ¡°So in short... You can make double the amount of hands, which in turn has actually quadrupled your total capacity?¡±


    ¡°Basically, yes.¡± Sam confirmed. ¡°And since each hand can now lift more than a dagger, I can have... 20 of them in the air at the same time.¡±


    ¡°And your mind won¡¯t overload from this?¡± Janik looked at Sam with an undefinable expression, mostly looking like he was processing all of this.


    ¡°I think it¡¯s fine, using 9 hands at the same time before wasn¡¯t a problem. It sounds like it should be but... It just works, it feels like they are hands I have always been able to use, just like my normal ones.¡± Flexing his physical hands as he talked, it was almost like he confirmed they were still working or making a point.


    ¡°And considering how your Pulsething hits harder the more hands you use... That¡¯s kinda fucked up.¡± Janik smiled, his comment clearly being a positive remark.


    ¡°It kind of is, yes.¡± Sam agreed. ¡°Though, I think I realised something in the fight just now... My fighting style isn¡¯t as good as it could be.¡± Sam hovered the Vampiric blade in closer and gave it to his normal hand. ¡°I can attack with a lot of weapons, yes, but I need time to aim for those critical hits. Normal attacks will be eaten up by armour. I don¡¯t have any damage multipliers and... I actually do a tiny bit more damage with my daggers using my hands.¡± He emphasised his point by fake-stabbing in the air with his normal hand.


    Janik took this info in and thought about it for a few moments. ¡°That¡¯s not a huge problem yet. Other Players are using armour, but most monsters don¡¯t have much in the sense of defences in our level brackets.¡± Though Janik didn¡¯t seem to be too much higher level than Sam, he seemed to at least have done his research. ¡°There are exceptions, of course. But for our relatively low level, the System seems somewhat balanced in our favour. Once we go to the second Floor that¡¯ll change, so I think we should look into a way for you to get around that.¡±


    Sam was a bit relieved that this wasn¡¯t a problem just yet, though it was going to be an issue in a while. Knowing how his own Defense protected him, certain attacks doing below 5 damage, just didn¡¯t make it through. Using that math, his simple daggers which do no more than 5 damage, wouldn¡¯t get through his armour, a critical hit could make it through but normal attacks wouldn¡¯t. Based on the lack of reaction when he attacked the PvP man, it felt like he would have a higher Defense than the daggers did damage.


    That thought brought Sam to another thing, they were dead now, and as they were intending to loot Janik and Sam for their stuff, it was only fair that now with the roles reversed; Janik and Sam got the loot!


    ¡°We still have some time, then. And I think it might be easier to ask around or test back on Earth. For now, I think we have some stuff to look through.¡±


    Sam started rummaging through the pockets, it felt a bit weird in a sense. It wasn¡¯t the first time he went through the pockets of an... unconscious... person, but it felt different due to the situation. It became a bit worse as they started taking off the armour and worn gear, feeling a bit like undressing a corpse.


    Once all of the collecting was done, the pile of stuff consisted of 2x Sets of Armour with a [ Defense 10 ] bonus, between them were four daggers with a base damage of 10, two D-rank health potions that heal 50%, and two stealth-boosting rings.


    Janik took a moment to go through it all and check things properly. ¡°Well, there is a substantial value here... So I hope you get that I can¡¯t just give you all of it.¡± He smiled, clearly referencing that he had been very nice with loot and things from earlier dungeons.


    ¡°What kind of values are we talking about?¡± Sam considered if it was worth buying Janik out of things. Though everyone could take advantage of Stealth, it was somewhat becoming his way of doing things, so stacking up on Stealth items didn¡¯t seem like a bad idea.


    ¡°Hmm... I don¡¯t have all the numbers in my head, but I think the Defense 10 armour sells for around $1000, buying them is about $5000 from their insane markups. At least that was how it was when I got mine. Potions are 500 sale and buy, I don¡¯t know about daggers but I think they are like 1-2000 or something.¡± He looked to the sky and squinted as he tried to remember, but his expression changed to a much more excited one as he looked back to Sam and continued. ¡°Now, the stealth rings. Even the cheapest ones easily go for ten thousand or so depending on supply. Stealth items are very sought after, not always easy to get.¡±


    Sam¡¯s heart dropped, he hoped this was a value he could overcome, so he could stack up on their effects. Due to how lucrative being a Player is he had sort of lost track of his account a little, but he should have somewhere above $3000, which was just impossible to imagine a week ago, but this wasn¡¯t even half of the expected selling price according to Janik.


    Asking to be given this for free was also... out of the question.


    ¡°Had it been a cheaper item-¡± Janik continued. ¡°-I could have given it to you but... Guy¡¯s got bills to pay, so I can¡¯t just hand it to you. Now, I get that this is a lot of money, so I can agree to a downpayment. You owe me the money, pay a little here and there, and if we should ever split up we need to work out the remaining value somehow. We¡¯ll double-check what they actually go for before we lock it down, but it basically means that you owe me ten grand.¡± He smiled happily, seeming satisfied with this middle ground.


    ¡°Oh, though half of this is yours, if you want the extra two daggers, it¡¯s the same deal there.¡± He waved his hand towards the collected pile of stuff.


    Sam pondered this hard. He disliked owing anything due to logical reasons. And this was a higher sum than he had ever considered. On one hand, he had been a Player for a few days and had 3000-something in his account, not considering the value of things like the gear he was using. He wanted the daggers as well, but if they went for a thousand a piece, it meant that he¡¯d owe 12 thousand.


    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    The amount of money to be considered was overloading his brain. It was like imagining a trillion dollars in your account, though a vastly different sum in Sam¡¯s mind both were almost as fantastical to consider.


    Trying to weigh things realistically, since the Stealth items were in high demand but low supply, hinting that they aren¡¯t easy to get randomly through Dungeons or quests, so paying at the sale price is an incredibly good deal, since TAC takes a 5x markup he saves a bunch of money that way. Though probably not in as low a supply, there was still a 4x saving by taking the daggers here rather than buying them.


    He could see Janik looking at him with a wide smile, already acting as if he had made a good deal... And frankly, it was an amazing deal for Sam. Janik lost nothing besides time in getting the full sum.


    ¡°Fine...¡± Sam finally caved in. ¡°I really do want them... it¡¯s just... so much money.¡± He complained a bit, not at the deal nor Janik, but at the cost of things. In his mind, though he knew this would probably not take more than a week or two, parts of his mind hated even considering it.


    ¡°Great!¡± Janik smiled as he focused on the air nowhere in particular, it looked like he was doing something with some System windows.


    It didn¡¯t take long before a window popped up in Sam¡¯s view.


    [ Player Janik Znai proposes a contract. ]


    Sam looked through it, at first he was intrigued that this was an option, but it kind of made sense. The System could already force anything onto anyone as soon as you were a part of it, just look at quests and classes, not to mention Elara¡¯s condition as a Companion. So it made sense this could be done as well.


    Reading through the contract suggestion it wasn¡¯t very wordy, but had what was needed. The items and expected cost, with the clause that the prices would change up or down depending on actual market value upon return to TAC. Downpayment time was set to three months and if it was not paid at that time, punishments would occur. Punishments ranged from how severe the breach was, from reclaiming the item without getting money back, even transfer of levels between them.


    It seemed harsh but that was only if he agreed to it and then didn¡¯t pay up. Even to Sam¡¯s mind, where this amount of money was insane, three months sounded fine. Worst case scenario he could just sell it and give him the money to avoid any negative blowbacks.


    Sam agreed to the contract since he could give the items up or sell them, there was no drawback to it, no fine print nor any interest added to it. This was him helping Sam out, but since the value was somewhere around 12 000, he wanted to make sure. Sam couldn¡¯t think of any reason not to be certain in cases like these.


    ¡°Then there we go.¡± Janik smiled. ¡°Then I¡¯ll just take one of the armours and one potion.¡± He looked satisfied with the deal they made and walked over to get his stuff.


    Sam was intrigued as well as he joined Janik with the pile of stuff they gathered. He took a moment to clean one of the armours, as it was better than the one he was wearing there was no need to not upgrade. Once his armour was on he looked at the rings, they were surprisingly simple looking, the System confirmed that they listed Stealth +5% each, and as he put them on he didn¡¯t feel any different, but the System confirmed that they were active and working. Sam was glad to see that they stacked, so he got the full 10% bonus.


    ¡°Soooo... How does the stealth thing work? I don¡¯t feel any different.¡± Sam asked feeling a bit dumb having gone into all of that without even knowing.


    ¡°Well, you¡¯re not trying to hide now, so they don¡¯t do anything. But as soon as you¡¯re trying to hide, they make it slightly harder to notice you. As it¡¯s a percentage bonus it means that it relies on your existing skills, but that also means that they will never stop being useful.¡± Janik answered as he was putting his part of the loot into his backpack.


    Sam nodded, this all made sense, any boost is a good boost. Spending a few moments bending and flexing around to make sure the armour was sitting properly, and a brief wondering of how Elara would wear rings, he felt good and ready.


    ¡°So... do... do we just leave them here?¡± Sam commented, referring to the two corpses on the forest floor.


    ¡°I don¡¯t see why not, they would do that to us, and as they say; Nature will reclaim.¡± Janik shrugged, he was done packing down everything, including his camp supplies and was already leaving the campsite. Not having any consideration for the two bandits in the slightest.


    Sam couldn¡¯t think of any good reasons to not let goblins, or whatever, eat them, so he joined Janik in leaving.


    As they walked he couldn¡¯t stop thinking how eventful the day was, not just considering the fight, but everything that just happened. He got a gear boost and a significant Psyhand boost. He was feeling a bit giddy, considering his options he could now fling around his nine daggers without problems, but since each Energy now produced two hands, this only cost him 5 energy and left him a hand to spare. According to what he read in the deeper information of his skills, the Force Pulse would still need 1 energy per hand, so even though it only took 1 Energy to manifest 2 hands, it would still cost 2 energy to Pulse with both.


    Since he used 5 energy to make hands for all the daggers, and if he wanted to Pulse as hard as possible, this let him use the remaining 5 energy to create one pair of hands, giving him three hands, use three points to pulse with those and have one left to either expand on his Area or get some bonus hands.


    He originally thought there was a lot of simple maths used in being a Player, but the way his resources worked also meant he needed to keep track of all of that. So he was surprisingly glad that he got the math education that he did before things went bad.


    They kept trekking along, Janik didn¡¯t have a specific path in mind, but he had a rough goal. A small mountain in the distance was the entrance to a dungeon, this one was filled with beastfolk, they were craftier than Goblins and gave much more XP, even compared to their level. It was relatively easy, the main problem with it was getting there. So once you get there it¡¯s normal to do a few runs to maximize it.


    ¡°A strange feeling of it is that though the entrance is near a mountain, it takes you to a forest in an open plain.¡± Janik explained. ¡°I haven¡¯t done it more than a few times, but I hear that it rotates between different beastfolk when it resets. I have done some Hyena people before, they were surprisingly crafty, so I¡¯ll be actively joining you from now on.¡±


    Sam was surprised, he was able to handle the last dungeon alone, though the end of it was... barely, had he been smarter it would have gone fine. And now Janik states that he needs to be a part of it.


    ¡°Is it that dangerous?¡± Sam confirmed hesitantly as they walked through the forests towards an open plain.


    ¡°Yes, though they won¡¯t kill you outright with one hit, one crit will do it, even with your armour. And two or three hits will kill you even with your armour.¡± He answered honestly.


    Though he appreciated the honest answer, Sam regretted not putting more into his Vitality at this point. ¡°So... you¡¯re saying I should have put a lot more points in Vitality...¡± Sam shared his thoughts.


    ¡°Hmm...¡± Janik pondered as he walked. ¡°I don¡¯t know. Your skills are highly reliant on Spirit, I think the best you can do is to work on raising your Vitality through training or get Attribute boosting items. I think it¡¯s a good idea for you to keep focusing on your unique abilities, but it might be smart to round out our party with another member, I can only do so much.¡±


    Not having seen this super cautious side of Janik properly before, Sam was a bit hesitant to even go into the Dungeon. It sounded like it was very high risk.


    ¡°So, if the risk is that high, I assume the rewards are as well?¡± Sam had an almost annoyed tone, he was about to risk getting one shot or murdered in two hits, he wanted this to be worth it.


    ¡°Each one of their cores usually goes for about $1000, not to mention their XP is over 10 times that of the goblins we fought. They can also have some weapons or Skill Crystals at times.¡± Even though he was facing away from Sam, being the one leading the trio if you counted Elara, Sam could hear that he was smiling.


    And... he had good reason to smile. They hadn¡¯t known each other that long yet but he had a solid grasp on Sam¡¯s greed. If the XP to kill them was over ten times the last dungeons they were in, didn¡¯t that mean that the Dungeon clear bonus was as well?


    It didn¡¯t take long before they exited the forests into the open plains, Janik pointed at a mountain straight ahead, and though it was just a straight walk it looked like it¡¯d take 20 minutes to get there.


    Even at this distance, Sam could see people around there, even a decent-sized building was not far from where the people were gathered, the strangest thing was that he could see an off-road modern car.


    He could feel some... hesitation, seeing a group of people in Aetheria, though his mind put itself at ease considering that the bandits were an exception, and this was a normal dungeon gathering location. His uncertainty slowly changed into excitement as they neared the mountain, this was his first ¡®real¡¯ dungeon, that required allies, it was also very different and most importantly; Lucrative.


    ¡°What¡¯s the building over there?¡± Sam finally asked, having wondered this for a short while.


    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s an Inn. They take absurd prices but at least it¡¯s guaranteed safe to sleep there. They also buy and sell stuff, so we can probably unload the armour and stuff we don¡¯t need before we go in.¡±


    ¡°Oh, so I can stock up on daggers there?¡± Sam was interested in filling up so he could use all 20 arms, since Janik said there wasn¡¯t much in the sense of defence ratings yet, then the cheap ones would probably be fine for now.


    ¡°That¡¯s a good idea! Double the daggers, double the stabby!¡± Janik exclaimed as he fake-stabbed wildly in the air with both his hands.


    Sam was getting more intrigued, this was going to be interesting!

 Ch.024 - Beastfolk Dungeon

    Soon enough they found themselves in shouting range of the group outside of the mountain and building, having gotten close they could now see everything better. The building was a two-story building, solid timber construction and was larger than a decently sized home. Looking through the large front windows he could see a bar and several tables where some people were eating. A few signs outside listed prices, one listed that a bunk-bed slot was $300 a night, breakfast included. So Sam could see what Janik meant by the prices being insane. But if the rewards from this dungeon were as good as he mentioned, comparably it shouldn¡¯t be hard to get that value... Thought could be argued that getting resources here and all that, It still felt a bit much.


    The people had been calling out things for a while now, but now that they could hear what was being said it was just a simple Looking for Group callout, stating what role they would fill, or what role they wanted in addition to how loot and rewards would be divided.


    Janik shook his head and denied all questions for grouping up, being polite and smiling as normal he didn¡¯t make a thing out of it, just a simple ¡°No, thanks. We already have a group.¡± Solved most of the questioning.


    Having spoken about getting more daggers had Sam interested, it would add to his weight but would also make him much more practical in battle.


    He entered the building without stopping, just the simple comments to the people wanting to go into the Dungeon. It was still relatively early before noon so they had plenty of time. Making things easier, having now spent a full day in Aetheria¡¯s first floor, Sam noticed that the passage of time was the same as on Earth.


    Entering the building after Janik, Sam got a confirmation of what he saw through the window outside. It was as simple as one could expect, the timber walls were the same on the inside, stacked and insulated, but no real wall panelling or anything to make it smoother than needed. Save a few specific things made of stone, like a currently not-in-use fireplace, everything was made of wood. The tables and chairs looked heavily used but maintained, the floor showed clear wear and tear, and the stairs going to the second floor were getting somewhat concave after copious use. And all in all, there was a heavy rustic cabin feel to everything. A few people were sitting in there, eating, and a small group was being rowdy at another table, talking loudly about how this and that monster did this and that, recounting events in the Dungeon. In another setting, Sam would be very interested to hear their stories.


    A dramatic contrast to this was the man running the place, he was a middle-aged man in a tailored suit. His greying hair was oiled back and some small wireframe glasses were on his nose. As they walked over to him standing behind the counter, working on a digital tablet of all things, he lifted his eyes and greeted them.


    ¡°Welcome to my Cabin, how can I help you today?¡± His smile and question flowed as naturally as someone working in a reception for years.


    ¡°We¡¯d like to sell and buy some stuff.¡± Janik replied without much extra in his voice, handling this like he had done it many times before. And without waiting for a response he had already started pulling the extra armour out of his bag.


    ¡°Certainly, just place everything on the counter and we¡¯ll get started.¡± The man replied as he picked up his tablet.


    The process was similar to the one in TAC, a plaque behind the counter explained that they would match the pricing to TAC as best they could. Which made sense, if they bought things too cheap people would just wait until they got back to TAC, and if they sold things with the same markup, or even cheaper, they would get all the money themselves.


    All in all not bad logic.


    Janik sold the Armour he got from the bandits, Sam kept his as he was wearing it but he sold the old one he wasn¡¯t wearing anymore. The sad thing was that it only went for $100, he currently had 9 daggers and he wanted the full 20 so he needed 11 more.


    The cheapest daggers still had a purchase price of $125 each, he was willing to lower them to 100 each as Sam was buying in bulk, but this still meant that it¡¯d set him back 1100. He was glad to hear that they were connected to the TAC network, allowing him to use his account to pay for things, though the money could be delayed up to a few days before they disappeared from his account, just so he could plan around it.


    This would consume about a third of what he remembered having in his account, which still meant that he would be set for quite the time as far as survival and living was considered. But, if things were as lucrative in this dungeon as Janik stated, this would be returned after two kills, so not a problem.


    It still felt weird blowing a thousand dollars in one purchase.


    All the daggers came with simple sheaths, that he needed a few minutes to place around on his body. He felt a bit dumb being covered in 20 daggers, but if this was to become his style he didn¡¯t have much choice. The alternative could be to shove them all in a bag or make some specialized sheath bag where all of them are put into a massive knife block of sorts in there. As dumb as that sounded it could perhaps be a better choice down the road.


    The daggers he got were the cheap kind, none having anything fancy and in the 5-damage bracket. It was fine for now as this now totalled 20 daggers, 15 of which were in the 5-damage bracket, 4 were in the 10-damage bracket and the last was the Vampiric Dagger with 15 damage and the Life Drain.


    He was feeling good about this, he still felt dumb with 20 blades strapped to his body, but it was a necessity for now. The combined weight was also less than he expected, he could feel some difference but it was quite manageable.


    ¡°So, you good, then?¡± Janik asked as Sam moved around, crouched and stretched after all the daggers were in place.


    ¡°Yeah, I think so. This feels weird but until I get a better solution it¡¯s just gotta do.¡±


    ¡°Great, let¡¯s head in, then.¡± He smiled before walking to the door.


    Sam followed and they were back outside soon enough, walking towards a cave-like opening in the mountain with cruder but similar ground markings as in the TAC dungeon room. There was no line and they could just waltz in like it was nobody¡¯s business.


    The familiar System window popped up and once they accepted it the white light brought them somewhere else. Taking a look around this place it was very different from what you¡¯d expect. Though Janik explained that this was an open area, it was still somewhat weird entering the mouth of a cave to trigger the Dungeon entering, only to be placed in a forest.


    The forest was similar to the one they slept in last night, landing in a clearing at the very end of it Sam could see the open plains behind them, stretching out to a mountain range not unlike the Floor 1 Plains. In front of them, considering the angle they landed, was just a forest of thick bark-covered trees.


    ¡°So.¡± Janik started to get Sam¡¯s attention. ¡°This is going to be much harder and more dangerous than the others. As I said; they can kill you with two blows, one if you¡¯re unlucky, it¡¯s already a risk with just the two of us going in here but... I want the money to be split as few times as possible so here we are.¡±


    He walked over to Sam properly and faced him, his smile completely faded and in its stead a serious face Sam hadn¡¯t seen much of on him. ¡°Don¡¯t hesitate to just exit the Dungeon if you think it¡¯s too bad. Even if you think it might get bad, just leave. Do not risk it.¡± He put heavy pressure on the end of his statement, having it sound like a hard order more than a suggestion. ¡°If you pop out, I¡¯ll join you right away, so don¡¯t hesitate.¡±


    Janik¡¯s warnings, and expression, put a heavier weight on this than Sam expected. Or, rather than unexpected it was more that the ¡®extra¡¯ nature and contrasting expressions of it made it weigh more. Sam had no intent to die in here, so he simply nodded.


    ¡°How do I actually lea-¡± Wanting to confirm how he could leave the Dungeon outside of the Exit portal, just thinking about it had the System open up a window.


    [ Do you wish to emergency exit the Dungeon? ]


    Not accepting it for now had it close, but it did explain exactly how that worked. ¡°Ah.. never mind... a window popped up...¡±


    ¡°Good, now, I¡¯ll stress it again. The things in here can kill you with one blow. If you think they will attack you, you fucking run and pop out. I won¡¯t question it if you do it by accident, or just at the sight of whatever¡¯s in here. I just don¡¯t want you to take a risk and die, you know?¡± The end of his sentence had his expression soften considerably, with a hint of sorrow like he had seen it happen more than once.


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.¡°It¡¯s already a risk bringing you in here, but I think it¡¯s going to be better if we take some outskirts or single targets and pop out for a reset a few times, rather than sending you through the starter Dungeons more times. Both for experience but also for Experience.¡± Janik smiled surprisingly widely at his correct, though joke-like, statement about experience.


    Sam agreed, that if the XP, possible loot and just learning proper tactics were that much better in here, it would be worth choosing their fights and just leaving to reset several times rather than doing the easier dungeons that Sam could solo....


    As they were nearing the end of their talk and started moving around, it didn¡¯t take long for the Dungeon Clear Window to pop up.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Frogman chief. 0/1


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters killed 0/20


    Rewards:


    1500 xp


    1x Healing potion - D


    Bonus rewards for optional step:


    1000 xp


    Random Box - X


    Chance (1%): C-tier weapon (25%), gear (25%), skill crystal (25%) or misc item (25%). ]


    Sam was intrigued by this. There was a 2500 XP pool for completing the whole thing, with a chance of a powerful weapon... compared to his level, of course. Now, if you were fast, stealthy and assassin¡¯y, you could just rush the Chief and leave. If you knew where to go to find him that could be a fast and effective way to just farm XP. You¡¯d forgo the bonuses but in some cases, the speed could make it worth it.


    [ XP to lv.11: 237 / 5120 ????? ]


    As he considered XP and math, his bar blinked under his health in his view, he needed about 5000 XP to level up again, which was dramatic compared to earlier levels but, it also meant two complete runs of this, not considering how much he got from killing, would alone be enough.


    ¡°Now.¡± Janik again said a word to get Sam¡¯s attention, breaking him out of his train of thought. ¡°You should try to hide, it sounds weird if you¡¯re not used to it but just do your best to sneak, tread lightly and focus on sneaking. That should activate the mode in the System and trigger your items. A slight distance between us is also a good idea. I¡¯ll get their attention and you just do your thing.¡±


    Sam could see his smile as Janik turned his head slightly to look behind him towards Sam.


    Trying what Janik explained, Sam focused on being stealthy, he didn¡¯t even need to crouch or anything weird, just focusing on how he stepped and wanting to be sneaky opened up a small window.


    [ Stealth activated ]


    Focusing on the window opened up an explanation window that had a percentage explanation. It listed +10% from items, but it also gave minor percentages based on skill, how he moved and things like light and if he was standing still. The total percent fluctuated dramatically as he walked, going between negative percent up to 15% and above when in shadows, standing still or crouched. He became more mindful of how and where he stepped, avoiding branches and leaves, crouching ever so slightly to keep his movement speed but hiding ever so slightly better in the brush. It all helped and stacked, though he had some minor skills in sneaking from his earlier life, he was by far not a professional and the percentages backed that up. A deeper thought on how Stealth worked in the System was simple, the percentage bonus he had at the moment of potential discovery would make him harder or easier to notice, meaning that a 100% stealth chance didn¡¯t mean that it was impossible to spot him, just making it two times as hard.


    Janik decided to talk and explain things as they went, specifying that Sam shouldn¡¯t reply unless specifically asked to do so, as it would help draw attention to himself and keep it away from Sam. Which was a good idea in a strange suicidal, but Tank-like way. He went through thoughts and ideas for how they should do combat. Single target was easy, just throw everything at the target, aiming to do damage to them before they get in range to do the same. Ranged targets would be a priority, the easiest way to handle that was to stop them from attacking when possible, if not, redirect their ranged weapons and return to sender. Though Sam¡¯s weight limit was ¡®just¡¯ 4 kg/8.8 lbs, this was more than most combat spears were, so it should be plenty... Tactics and ideas for different setups like multi-target fights, with and without ranged were explained. Now and then Sam was requested to comment, which was done through whispers for safety¡¯s sake, but that didn¡¯t happen much.


    This walk and talk only lasted for a few solid minutes before Janik motioned for them to stop. He crouched as well and looked in a specific direction. Sam snuck up next to him and was pointed towards a lone frogman.


    Sam was surprised when the quest info listed Frogman, parts of him assumed just a bipedally walking frog of sorts, but this was very different. The frogman was standing bipedal, but he was also about as tall as Sam was and built very strong. There wasn¡¯t much in the sense of a neck, making his head look like a part of his shoulders. His hind legs were powerful as were his arms, he didn¡¯t wear much in the sense of clothing but he was carrying a stone-tipped spear as he looked around, almost like he was looking for something specific.


    Janik nodded towards the frogman, then looked at Sam, making a stabbing motion to wordlessly explain his plan. And Sam agreed, this was kind of his territory. A surprise attack ¡®from nowhere¡¯ was an effective first strike, and if they kept hidden it would make a second attack possible before they were discovered.


    Using a brief moment to produce all 20 Psyhands and grabbing the daggers, he was glad to confirm that he could pull them out without the need for his normal hands to pull them out as before, making the process much smoother, and perhaps more terrifying in the correct scenario.


    This was his first attack with 20 daggers, and it was surprisingly easy to move them around the brush, trees and branches, much like he would his normal hands. Getting all of them aimed before he struck was a different story. Feeling confident in the daggers being in good points, hiding behind trees, above the target and around like that, he brought them around and sent them towards the lone Frogman.


    Out of the 20 attacks, even though he was taking his time to aim, five attacks missed. One of the 10-damage daggers and four of the 5-damage daggers.


    It seemed to be more than enough, the poor unaware creature had no chance as he was sliced apart, his body sending out a splurt of blood in every direction. A single grunt left his lips as he fell, blood stopping to pulse only a second later.


    [ Experience gained +100 ]


    Sam¡¯s eyes widened in surprise, he got a hundred XP from that single attack. Though it wasn¡¯t on the same level as the Player he got earlier, it was far beyond what he got from the Goblins earlier. And the 100 was just his share so the beastfolk here gave 200 XP a pop.


    This increased the amount of XP obtained in this Dungeon from 2500 per person by at least 2000, plus whatever the Chief gave. So a total of at least 4500 XP per person for a two-man group. This was amazing.


    ¡°Oof.¡± Janik let out a reaction shortly after the Frogman fell. ¡°That looked brutal.¡±


    Sam agreed, though five of his blades missed, this was still 15 deep cuts happening at once.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get his core and move on.¡± Janik added as he snuck his way over to the corpse.


    Sam followed and they went through the normal process of digging into the body to get the core. It took a short moment as Sam was the one doing it, not needing to dirty himself that much due to his Psyhands, but he wasn¡¯t experienced with Frogmen so he was a bit slower than with the Goblins.


    They continued after, Sam choosing to bring the primitive spear the Frogman had, it wouldn¡¯t do him that well in throwing or fighting with it normally, worst-case scenario he could use it to stab something charging him, but he planned to Force Launch it at something.


    Keeping the process of Janik talking lowly with some breaks, and Sam sneaking behind him, seemed to work very well. As Janik rounded a surprisingly thick tree he pulled out both his swords in a single movement and stepped in, out of view for Sam.


    Sam hurried up, keeping low and silent, as he tried to see what was going on.

 Ch.025 - An idea

    Hearing the sound of combat, Sam stepped into view of what was happening. He saw three Frogmen like the one he saw before, but all of them were aware of Janik. One was dead on the forest floor with two deep cuts in his chest as the three others charged Janik with spears.


    Sam Force Launched the spear he was carrying at one of the Frogmen, and to his surprise, it was a critical hit!


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    The spear embedded itself in the gut of the rightmost target, as the frog let out a pained groan he remained standing, but he used a few valuable seconds to pull the spear out of his body.


    Janik was readying himself and as there were still a few solid steps between them, Sam pulled all his daggers and with great speed, he sent them swinging towards the target closest to Janik.


    Due to his lack of proper aiming, there were a few misses, though less than he expected. Four daggers missed, hitting trees or just straight up missing, one of which was a 10-damage blade. The remaining 16 daggers cut deeply and sliced the frog apart.


    This caused severe hesitation in the other two, giving Janik a solid opening to close the distance and deliver two powerful slices at the next in line. Like the one already dead when Sam rounded the tree, the two deep cuts landed properly and the frog fell. The one Sam speared gave a gurgling war cry as he stepped in and thrust his spear towards Janik.


    Luck was on their side and the copious amount of slick blood on the forest floor messed with his balance, the frogman slipped slightly giving Janik an easier chance to dodge, having the spear miss completely right before Sam brought in the swarm of blades his way. Some daggers still missed but that was fine, most of them still hit the already wounded target and the [ Lifesteal 1 ] even activated. A powerful pulse of splatting blood left the last target before he fell over.


    ¡°Whoo.¡± Janik got out of his combat stance and stretched his back before swinging his blades a single powerful slice each in the air, causing most of the blood to fly off from the centrifugal force. ¡°That was a good one.¡±


    Sam agreed with a nod. This could have gone smoother, but the result was perfect. No damage to them and complete victory. He dared to hope that the rest of the Dungeon would be the same, but he was afraid of jinxing it.


    Finding that his daggers were now covered in frog goop, from the first attack but also the current battle. He had a trick that was harder for normal people. Due to the speed of the cuts, only the blades were coated in frog juice, since his Psyhands couldn¡¯t be cut but could interact with substances and items, he could simply grasp them around the blade and pull down as one would a cloth, this scraped off the blood without effort.


    ¡°Oh, how did you do that?¡± Janik quizzed as he saw the blood just peel off the blades.


    ¡°I used my Psyhands, they can¡¯t be cut, so I can scrape it off.¡± Sam smiled, feeling like he discovered a new trick.


    ¡°Oh! Oh! Do that to mine!¡± He held out his swords for Sam to clean, like his own weapons the blades themselves were the only thing covered.


    Using a few hands he pulled them along the blade a few times, scraping it off like a squeegee.


    Janik looked happily surprised at how effective this was. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s great, I don¡¯t need to clean my scabbards as deeply if you do this.¡±


    This made a lot of sense, you would wipe off the weapons the best you could, on the clothes of your enemies, nature or bring paper towels or something. But this was fast, safe and reusable, took close to zero effort and just worked. It wasn¡¯t perfect, naturally, so some maintenance would be needed, but it dramatically cut down on fluids shoved into the scabbard.


    Only now, after cleaning all the weapons, did Sam remember that his daggers were needed to dig out the cores. Luckily it wasn¡¯t that he had gone through a thorough cleaning regimen, but it felt like a wasted effort nonetheless. He got to work and dug out the four Cores.


    [ Experience gained: +400. ]


    [ XP to lv.11: 737 / 5120 ????? ]


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Frogman chief. 0/1


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters killed: 5/20 ]


    Progress was being made, already halfway with the targets felt almost too good to be true. Most of the time so far had been used sneaking around and taking it easy. It was somewhat logical to imagine the main target being either in the centre of the forest or at the opposing end, they were taking it easy and trying to get a jump on them. It didn¡¯t work in this specific instance but it was a safer way than just rushing into the centre and getting swarmed.


    They agreed to take their time and continue as they were, this let them find and sneak up on a group of two Frogmen, seemingly discussing something in their croaks and groans.


    As they were busy, Janik took a moment to type something on his phone for silent communication. He explained that he could see their HP as 65, meaning that if Sam split up his daggers, 9x 5dmg, 2x 10dmg on one target, and 6x 5dmg, 2x 10dmg and the 1x15dmg on the other target. If all attacks hit he could take them both out at the same time.


    This put tremendous pressure on Sam, but he also knew that as long as they remained hidden, he could get another attack or two before they found them, lessening the pressure considerably.


    Nodding and willing to give it a go, he moved closer so he was barely within range of his attack, taking a longer time than before to line up his attack before striking. All twenty daggers were in position, he had double and triple-checked as far as he could without showing the floating blades to his targets. Pulling the metaphorical trigger he sent them flying and he was happy to see that only two attacks missed, one 5dmg dagger per target, but everything else landed!


    This caused tremendous damage to them both, lost a lot of blood and were covered in cuts, but both were still standing. Widening their stance they grasped their spears, looking around them for an enemy. One frogman looked around and saw only the floating blades, frantically yelling as he started to attack them his stone spearhead contact with the metal blades. The other looked around and managed to spot Sam through the brush.


    Letting out a powerful shout he wound up throwing his spear and letting it fly, but it seemed that his wounds were too severe, he couldn¡¯t put enough force behind it and the spear didn¡¯t even make it to Sam, hitting the dirt in front of him. Sam didn¡¯t intend to let the scenario go to waste and keeping the dagger grouping he simply spun them around and pulled them back to him. The first frog managed to parry one of them, but as there were 10 more heading his way and 9 coming in behind the second frog, none of them stood a chance as only one needed to contact.


    The two fell. Again there was no damage to the duo and no resources spent so far. Elara didn¡¯t even need to use her venom and all in all, this was successful so far.


    Or, so they thought.


    Before the Players got to take the next step ahead, there was some stomping and rustling in the distant brush. Choosing to space themselves from the scene of the crime they left the vicinity and gained some distance. It didn''t take long before the source of rustling showed itself as more frogmen, three to be exact, came riding in on man-sized lizards.


    Janik looked a bit uncertain, he was considering things before he started writing on his phone again, tapping a few times on the dimly lit screen, looking up at the new group before tapping some more. His gaze switched back and forth several times like this, not wanting to lose sight of the target as he did so.


    Showing his phone to Sam, he got a moment to read.


    The message read that the lizards didn¡¯t have as much health, he read only 45 on them, but they were much stronger, a single bite would kill Sam even without critical hitting. So they needed to be taken out first.


    Once Sam had read and pushed the phone back, Janik updated the message over a few seconds. The new information read that they should try to take them out of range, if that failed it might be smart to leave and reset.


    Seeing Janik this uncertain and stressed hammered home the point he was making. They could give it a test relatively safely, but with the 10m/30ft range he had, if he wanted to use all 20 daggers was somewhat limited in a strange sense. He needed to get closer.


    Using Janik¡¯s phone, he wrote that in return that he needed to get closer to reach, he¡¯d start with the lizards and if it looked like he was going to get attacked, he¡¯d just exit.


    Janik read the reply and his brow furrowed, he didn¡¯t seem happy about the danger but after a few seconds of thinking he seemed better about it. Writing a reply on his phone he showed Sam.


    Getting the go-ahead with the order of just getting the fuck out if they come for him, Sam started sneaking ahead to get in range of the first lizard mount. All of his daggers were floating and ready.


    Just as he was getting in range he noticed that the lizard noticed him in return, sniffing the air and taking a few steps closer. Though this was a fail for his sneaking skills, it was kind of positive as it allowed him to get in range faster. None of the others seemed to have noticed him, so this worked out wondrously.


    Slicing forwards towards the head and neck of the lizard, only four of Sam¡¯s attacks failed to land, 1x10dmg and 3x5dmg. The landing hits were plenty to take it out instantly, and as the daggers effortlessly slid through its thick hide due to their speed, it pulsed blood as it fell flat. Not a sound left its body and if one didn¡¯t notice all the blood it could almost look like it was sleeping.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Two of the three frogmen noticed that something was weird with the lizard, and some croaks and gurgles later, one of them stepped in closer to investigate. Sam panicked a little; should he try to get in range of the lizards or just take out the frogman?


    Trying something else, as the frogman was moving in closer to investigate the dead Lizard, the other frogman being focused on him, the two lizards were also somewhat focused on what was going on.


    Bringing in six 5dmg daggers and despawning the Psyhands, he used those points to extend the size of his Area, this let him hit one of the other Lizards. Taking advantage of their focus he aimed properly and sliced!


    In reality, if he hit perfectly, he could take them out with the four 10dmg daggers and one 5dmg one, but he didn¡¯t dare gamble with the aim. The positive of this was that the lizard was overkilled solidly. The negative thing was that everyone reacted to this happening, but the only thing they saw was the flying daggers.


    This started a few seconds of panic, they seemed to wonder what to do with the situation, giving Sam a moment to do something, anything. Pulling the daggers within normal range he cut the Area expanding, returning the 3 points. Dismissing a few more pairs of hands he ended up with three pairs holding daggers and 7 points to spare, using those points he Force Launched the 15dmg, the four 10dmg and one 5dmg dagger at the last Lizard, allowing him to ignore the range, of sorts, and gamble for the best.


    One 10dmg and the one 5dmg dagger missed, however since the 15dmg and three 10dmg daggers landed, this was still the needed 45 damage! No critical hits nor Lifesteal activation, but exactly what was needed.


    The landing four daggers embedded themselves deep in the body of the lizard as the light of life left its eyes. This caused even more panic in the remaining two Frogs, they looked around frantically and managed to find Sam hiding in the bushes.


    One of them threw his spear at Sam, he wasn¡¯t able to move the hands in place fast enough to affect the trajectory so the spear landed solidly.


    [ Armour, Defence 10 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 07 / 35 ¨€?????? ]


    Sam was not surprised at the damage, Janik had warned him about that but he was reacting to the damage done by crying out in pain. His mind called for help, wanting to hide and wanted safety.


    [ Do you wish to emergency exit the Dungeon? ]


    The window popped up, he wanted to accept it but... his items, his dagger. The Vampiric dagger specifically. By the time he had even considered things, Janik had run past him at amazing speed, both blades in his hands found his target, cleaving up the closest frogman, the one who still held his spear.


    Sam had an important choice to make, leave the dungeon and risk not finding his dagger again, or waiting until he had to. He was near death but at the same time, he was not the main target right now. Instinctively pulling up all remaining daggers not out of his range, he found himself with 14 of his 5dmg blades in his hands, stepping in closer he sliced them towards the remaining Frogman who was preoccupied with considering what to do.


    10 of the blades landed true, not enough to kill him, but did considerable damage. Moving a pair of Psyhands onto the frog¡¯s eyes he used the remaining of his energy to Force Pulse into them. It wasn¡¯t enough to do any damage or lasting effects, but it was more than enough to ruin his eyesight for the two seconds Janik needed to pounce in and finish the job.


    As the last frogman fell, so did Sam fall to his ass in relief. ¡°Holyfuck that was stressful...¡± He expected to get a stern talking-to from Janik for not leaving the dungeon but was surprised when the only thing in his eyes was worry.


    ¡°Are you ok? You¡¯re not bleeding, you got shit for HP but, how do you feel?¡± He sounded a little panicky as his hands were on their way out of his bag with a potion in hand.


    ¡°I feel fine-¡± Sam stopped him from uncorking the potion. ¡°Well... the dark orange health is scary but I¡¯m fine.¡± He fished out his potions and started shotting them one after another. He used the lower-rank potions for this as you wanted the high-power ones for emergencies.


    ¡°Good.¡± Janik stated before he slapped the back of Sam¡¯s head. ¡°You should have left... I mean... I get why you didn¡¯t, and I guess you wanted to wait for the last minute but... Please don¡¯t do that again.¡± His voice started stern and angry but ended soft and almost to the point of holding back tears.


    ¡°Are... are you ok?¡± Sam turned the question to Janik¡¯s tone at the end of his rant.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine, just reacting to how reckless you are.¡± Janik took a moment to breathe after his poor attempt to change focus. ¡°But I get it. And I¡¯m glad it worked out. But... you only get one life, don¡¯t squander it on the hope of things going well...¡±


    Sam had to agree. Like Janik mentioned his plan was somewhat to hold back until the last minute, he could see them fighting and if one were to wind up another spear he could just accept leaving then. But, thinking like this gave him another thought, what if someone he didn¡¯t see were to attack him... That would be bad... Perhaps Janik had more points to his rant than he thought.


    Having chugged down 8 of his 11 cheap potions, he was back to 100% health, and though it didn¡¯t go perfectly, he was proud of his choices in this fight. He almost took out all of them and if he had been better at sneaking it could have been amazing.


    ¡°That said, you did surprisingly well.¡± Janik complimented, adding to Sam¡¯s pride in the moment. ¡°You almost got them all, not fond of throwing your strongest daggers like that, but I... guess it was a range issue?¡± He sounded uncertain at the end, though they had discussed Sam¡¯s limitations, considering range is not always perfect when you¡¯re not in the situation.


    ¡°Yeah, I had to drop some hands to reach the Lizard over there, but the last one was too far away.¡± Sam confirmed, wondering if there was a way to properly extend the range of his Area. Though his 10m/30ft gave him a lot of wiggle room, having a permanently larger area would be much better.


    ¡°Yeah, thought as much. In that case, I get it, might be smart having some backup daggers for shit like that in the future. Or just use your spikes with Venom on or something.¡± Janik shrugged.


    That comment had Sam feel... dumb... In the heat of the moment, he had completely forgotten that he had Elara with him. She was attentive and looking around like always but wasn¡¯t getting involved as per his earlier orders. She could have proven surprisingly good in this fight, sneaking around and causing distractions, or, as Janik mentioned, just having venom on some of his spikes.


    He chose not to mention it.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s good to see your health back to full, but... I get the feeling of wanting to continue, but we can always just restart as many times as we want. Please don¡¯t... Just... don¡¯t hesitate. I¡¯d rather leave after one kill than risk it again.¡±


    ¡°Yeah... I¡¯m sorry. I thought that if I left, my daggers would remain in here, not sure how that works so...¡± Sam did feel a bit apologetic about this. Janik had been nothing but supportive, and the only thing he was a bit strict on was pure survival. Which was a good thing to be annoying about.


    ¡°Yeah, if you emergency leave, everything you leave is lost unless someone else gets it. I could have given it a go but if we left now odds are high that I wouldn¡¯t consider it... But losing thousands on thousands of dollars, or the fuck it¡¯s worth, is always better than dying.¡±


    Again, Sam had to agree. He only considered the value of his dagger. Though it was a pain to get and was amazing and such, it paled compared to the value of his life. He couldn¡¯t use it if he was dead, after all.


    He would have to reevaluate this, it was hard to let that thought go but... It was the smarter thing to do. The alternative is that he needed to get powerful enough that this stopped being a danger.


    [ Experience gained: +1500. ]


    [ XP to lv.11: 2237 / 5120 ¨€¨€??? ]


    [ Companion Elara, level up +1! ]


    [ Elara XP to lv.9: 707 / 1280 ¨€¨€??? ]


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Frogman chief. 0/1


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters killed: 13/20 ]


    Though this fight was more dangerous than any he had had so far, in its way, it was surprisingly manageable as long as he managed to keep hidden. He was still somewhat surprised that he got 1500 XP, considering this was just his half. They spent some time relaxing after the fight, but also getting the cores. Elara¡¯s level-up point was put in Vitality as normal, now bringing her total Health up to the same as Sam''s. Though she didn¡¯t have his Defense rating... yet... This did mean that she wasn¡¯t too far from him in survivability. Cleaning of the blades was done as before so it didn¡¯t take long before they were somewhat ready to continue.


    They continued to sneak through the forest for a while until they came to a large clearing. It looked swampish with a bog of sorts, some simple tree-trunk-looking bridges here and there, simple thatch huts and a large area looking like a ritualistic platform where something looking like the exit portal was held.


    The remaining 7 Frogmen could be seen around the place, the Chief was easily recognisable. He had the same appearance as the others except being a head taller, much wider and looked like he was on steroids. He used the same stone spear as the others but everything about him just looked worse.


    ¡°Well... He has twice the HP of the others...¡± Janik commented passively, causing strong consideration with Sam before he continued. ¡°I do have an idea, though.¡±

 Ch.026 - Spear!

    Sam looked at Janik, hoping his idea would be amazing because seven of the Frogmen and one BossFrog felt... overwhelming for them without any AOE spells or items.


    ¡°The plan is simple but relies on you and Elara. We try to poison them. Elara can probably sneak around but she would die if she¡¯s hit once. But you can use her venom on spikes and launch them from wherever, as the venom works... or not... you relocate.¡± Janik smiled a bit more sadistically than Sam would have liked him to. ¡°The best would be if you could move it to somewhere they would step, on a splinter or something, making it look random and accidental.¡±


    Janik¡¯s idea was... weird and a bit tedious, but it sounded like it had a high success rate. If they made some natural-looking splinters, he could move it around with one Psyhand and use the remaining Energy to extend his range. If he moved it where they were walking it looked random, or if he stabbed their hands with them as they touched some wood. It was a stretch but depending on their intelligence and Sam¡¯s subtlety... If the splinters were venomed it could work?


    ¡°That¡¯s a stretch, don¡¯t you think?¡± Sam whispered back.


    ¡°Oh yeah, absolutely. But imagine you getting a splinter from some dirty-ass bog-wood, and the system tells you that you¡¯re poisoned. Would you think it was a trap?¡± Janik¡¯s smile grew wider.


    Sam didn¡¯t have a response. It was a decent idea now that he considered the scene from the other way. If he was walking about in some wooden outpost like this and... as Janik stated, if he got a splinter and got poisoned. The first thing jumping to his mind wouldn¡¯t be that they were being invaded... It just sounded so dumb.


    This did revolve heavily around him being able to sneak around and do this over and over again until he was either found out or Elara was out of Venom.


    ¡°I suppose we¡¯ll make some splinters, then.¡± Sam commented in a weird confusing tone.


    Janik smiled as they headed away from the clearing to get some distance to make some noise. Stopping after they felt satisfied Janik started by breaking a branch, it splintered as though it was relatively dry, but it was still somewhat alive. However, the splintered point was perfect to use a knife and some wiggling to get a good wooden needle of sorts out.


    ¡°We¡¯ll dry them with my lighter to give them the extra hardness for this, but this should work!¡± He looked surprisingly happy as he took out his little lighter and started heat-treating his little splinter.


    A few minutes later it looked done, some tidying up and sharpening with one of Sam¡¯s daggers later and it... looked the part. A bit big, perhaps, but still something you wouldn¡¯t think twice of finding anywhere in a forest. Wondering a brief moment if he could spread one dose of venom across several splinters, as they were so small, Sam decided to make a few more splinters before they started envenoming them.


    As they continued with the process, using up Janik¡¯s lighter fluid, Sam came to think of something.


    ¡°What if the Venom doesn¡¯t kill them, they make it out of it or if I need to use all of the doses on one target?¡±


    If worst came to worst all ten available doses could be resisted.


    ¡°That¡¯s fine, I think it¡¯s a safe and good enough idea to give it a try, even though it might not work, we might get lucky that we get at least one target taken out covertly. If nothing else this is kind of fun, don¡¯t you think?¡± He looked legitimately amused and happy about what they were doing.


    Sam hadn¡¯t considered it before now, he was so focused on the crafting and plan that he didn¡¯t take the metaphorical step back to relax and think about it. Ignoring that they were going to use this to just straight up murder the beastfolk in the Dungeon, the Dungeon monsters seemed universally against them... Though invading their home probably had something to do with this. At the same time, after the hundreds of Goblins he had just cut and stabbed without provoking, he was used to it to a dangerous level.


    The crafting and dumb ideas were amusing and entertaining, so though it had some undertones of an insane serial killer, and ignoring the fact that they were using much longer time than ¡®proper¡¯ on this dungeon, it was kind of neat.


    Once the ten needles were done, Sam started the envenoming or rather had Elara start. He instructed her to try and coat several with one dose and spread it out a bit. But the System had other ideas. As soon as her venom contacted one of them, the needle changed its name to [ Venom Splinter - Venom 1 ], meaning that it consumed the dose entirely and changed the hue to an off-blue colour similar to the needle.


    Since the venom was absorbed into the wood, the off-hue looked like something you could find in wood or perhaps some fungal thing, meaning it looked natural enough even though the venom had an electric blue colour to it.


    Though that said, he did check the information about it and couldn¡¯t find any expiring time. He knew that normal snake venom only lasted for so long, a few weeks at best or something, he didn¡¯t know. But these didn¡¯t seem like they expired at all.


    That was very good news indeed.


    ¡°Ok, since I just need to move the one, I can expand my Area to 23.5m/75ft. That should give me a lot more wiggle room when it comes to range. I¡¯ll focus on one target at a time and basically re-stab him with new needles until I¡¯m out or he¡¯s dead, and we¡¯ll take it from there. What if I get discovered?¡±


    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry, if you¡¯re discovered, just find cover, I¡¯ll be sneaking with you as best I can. Use me as cover if needed, but if I tell you to exit, we both go.¡± Again this didn¡¯t sound like a request or information, it sounded like a hard order.


    Sam nodded, he was fine with this. They had gotten far so all of this was good for now. If they had to restart it was fine.


    Having all ten splinters ready, he put them in a small container made of some folded bark. It was extremely simple but worked as a quiver of sorts for now. Sneaking back to the place they were in before they found that everyone had moved, this could sound like a bad thing but also meant that they could go somewhere to make them into an easier target.


    Sam did his best to sneak around the perimeter of the clearing, looking for an opening to start their plan. It took a while of waiting and waiting, growing almost boring, but finally, there was a point where one of them looked like he was about to cross one of the trees that worked as a bridge. It was within Sam¡¯s extended range so he hurriedly moved the splinter in his path, keeping it flat until he was about to step on it. Once his foot was in the path he lifted it and propped it against the wood. The frogman stepped on it as planned and let out a pained sound, almost like a swear-like stepping on a needle, as it was a close comparison it felt proper.


    [ The target successfully saved against [ Venom 1 ]! ]


    Lifting his foot he looked at it and pulled out the splinter, a dissatisfied sigh later he flicked it into the bog, not seeming to consider it more.


    It took a short while before someone else came into a good position, also walking barefoot across the bridge logs. Sam repeated the process as last time!


    [ The target failed to save against [ Venom 1 ]! ]


    Sam smiled widely as it worked, it only took a few seconds before the next message.


    [ The target successfully saved against [ Venom 1 ]! ]


    Sam internally cursed, but that didn¡¯t last long at all. To maximize the effect he kept targeting the same frogman with the remaining splinters.


    Splinters 3, 6, 7 and 8 failed outright. Splinters 4 and 5 lasted a few seconds, and 9 lasted only a moment.


    The math was simple, Sam got a ping every time the save failed or succeeded, so a total of 8 damage was all they managed with this.


    The frogman who had suddenly been unlucky enough to find ten splinters in a short while was getting fucking livid, yelling out things in annoyance, the others seemed to simply laugh at his misfortune, which made him angrier. Even with the language barrier it wasn¡¯t hard to guess the base idea of what was being said and shouted.


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s it, we¡¯re out.¡± Sam commented to Janik, who sighed silently.


    ¡°It was worth the try. Also... kind of fun, to be honest.¡± Janik¡¯s smile was still on his lips even though it didn¡¯t work out. ¡°When Elara gets a more powerful Venom, this is going to be very fun to use.¡±


    Sam couldn¡¯t agree more, both on it being a little fun but when the efficiency increased it would be better.


    ¡°Well, we¡¯ll change gears.¡± Janik whispered. ¡°I think Elara is the better choice for this. She can slither out and get their attention, then come over to us. If we can get them one and one into the woods we can ambush them. Seeing a snake and perhaps being bored or whatever, might have them want to kill it...¡± Janik knew how this sounded.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    ¡°I am fine with it if Master allows.¡± Elara whispered back, both of them turning to Sam.


    Sam didn¡¯t like the pressure of the situation, but he was right in that it was a much better idea than just going out there and gambling. But he didn¡¯t want to risk it, she didn¡¯t have any defences and the damage they could do would just outright kill her.


    ¡°I don¡¯t like it... She has a decent amount of HP now but she¡¯ll die from one hit. I get that she might be hard to target but... I don¡¯t want to risk it.¡± Sam felt a bit awkward. It was a good idea, but he couldn¡¯t let Elara risk her life like that... He was kind of understanding how Janik felt. He also chose to not consider if Elara felt useless in the scenario, her venom doing barely anything of value and she not being allowed to be the decoy.


    ¡°Understandable, it was worth considering.¡± Janik agreed, and though there was a hint of dissatisfaction in there he accepted it without question. ¡°Then I suppose we¡¯ll just have to lure them in one by one or go after them hoping for the best.¡±


    Sam had to agree there, without a better solution they had to kind of hope.


    Taking a moment to plan how to do it, the simplest was to just make a noise as someone was closer than the rest, hoping that they would come into the forest. And this worked for a few of them!


    The first one walked into the forest all too calmly, seemed like he expected it to be an animal or something, 20 daggers later he fell instantly. This was noticed by someone, who came to investigate, though he entered the forest line with more vigour and care, 20 daggers handled that as well.


    Though their luck changed at that point, two of the remaining ones noticed something was wrong and shouted some tongue-undulating sound, followed by something shouted in their language which brought great care and uncertainty towards their part of the woods.


    Janik and Sam decided to move spots, but not before Janik took the two spears with him, leaving the area they were in and doing their best to sneak away to find a better spot. The idea worked fine for a short while until the Chief noticed them moving, he pointed at the two and yelled out something, which had the remaining five frogmen charge them.


    They had some good valuable seconds using range to their advantage, Janik nodded towards them in a ¡®do your thing¡¯ way as he readied a spear for throwing. Sam did as he was instructed, his 20 daggers and shorter range were still good to go from the ambushes before. As soon as they stepped within his Area he let the daggers fly.


    Several attacks were missed, but with two Critical hits and many more landing, the first Frogman fell mid-step in a burst of blood. This didn¡¯t stop the others from charging in. One of them threw their spear at the invaders but not knowing where their exact location had the spear miss completely. Sam was hiding behind a tree, letting him see them without being seen in return, for now at least. Using this he moved the daggers to the next in line.


    Again a lot of daggers missed but more hit, shredding him up as the swarm of daggers hovered menacingly in the air. Leaving them in plain sight like that had them doubt and stop and reconsider. The leader croaked something to them and pointed in the air, which had two of them run to the sides and enter the forest further up and down. This felt like a surrounding tactic which would work wonders.


    They had to trust each other, Sam did not doubt that Janik realised this as well, and the fact that he threw both spears at them, one landed extremely solid and killed the frogman, and the second hit the boss who was now nearing their location, it seemed to do damage but not enough to take him down.


    This attack pissed him off considerably. A surprisingly powerful and oddly terrifying roar came from the boss. Sam decided to ignore him for now and pull his blades back into the forest. Luckily enough the Frog coming for him wasn¡¯t sneaking very well, and could be heard from surprisingly far away. In the forest, it was much harder to hit a target, with movement, cover and trees making things worse. Though many blades missed or hit cover still enough of them made it through that Sam¡¯s opponent fell instantly.


    Turning around to face the boss he realised something horrifying. The Chief was standing next to him.


    Sam¡¯s body froze for a second as the boss thrust his spear towards him. The Emergency Escape message didn¡¯t have the time to pop up and activate before Janik had covered the distance and kicked the back of the spear, ruining the thrust completely.


    Getting some distance right away, Sam briefly saw Janik¡¯s face, he had thrown caution to the wind and bolted through the forest, raking branches and plants across his face without considering it, but it had saved his life.


    The chief didn¡¯t even turn around but kicked backwards, a surprisingly long-range kick landed in his gut, sending him flying backwards. Sam knew he needed to get far enough away that the Chief couldn¡¯t just catch up to him again, letting Janik take care of the situation for now he just kept running.


    Having run for a brief moment, looking around in panic he wondered if the Chief had followed him, the sound of battle still happening confirmed that it hadn¡¯t.


    Doing his best to speed-sneak back, he found himself close enough to affect the battle again. Janik was looking bad, he had taken several hits and was bleeding, the Chief had also taken a few hits but was looking in better shape.


    Sam brought the daggers in like before, taking a few seconds to aim, though this gave the Chief a moment to attack yet again, he didn¡¯t have a choice if he wanted to make sure he hit. Janik had entered a defensive stance, similar to when he fought the PvP man earlier. He was defending well but couldn¡¯t get any blows in.


    A bunch of the daggers missed, hitting trees, just straight up missing due to the Chief¡¯s movements or slapping sideways onto his body doing no damage. However, enough daggers hit. The vampiric dagger activated and many landed true, embedding themselves deep in the body of the Chief.


    With Janik¡¯s earlier dealt damage as well as Sam¡¯s dagger swarm, the Chief fell to the massive wounds he had obtained, falling forward and landing on the forest floor with a mighty thud.


    The swordsman didn¡¯t leave anything to chance, he stepped in and embedded both his swords deep through the Frog Chief¡¯s head, twisting both blades before yanking them back out. Taking a few steps back he was looking in horrible shape but he was still standing.


    ¡°Yes!¡± he exclaimed as he lifted both his hands in the air, blood from his sword flying off and splattering across the trees.


    He looked honestly happy though it contrasted as he was covered in wounds and gore.


    Though Sam was also happy to have succeeded, he also felt a bit weird as he almost died a minute ago. Though this was beginning to become a thing he didn¡¯t like how easily killed he was becoming.


    As he started walking over to Janik, planning to comment on his appearance, the Dungeon Clear window popped up.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Frogman chief. 1/1 - Completed


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters: 20/20 - Completed


    Rewards:


    1500 xp


    1x Healing potion - D


    Bonus rewards for optional step:


    1000 xp


    Random Box - X


    Chance (1%) - Success: Random Skill Crystal - C (25%). ]


    Like before it auto-completed a few seconds after displaying itself and what it succeeded in getting, meaning that the 1% chance of getting something extra neat succeeded!


    The window didn¡¯t close itself but it dumped the rewards in Sam¡¯s hands like the previous times, the XP just happened but manifesting in his hands was a nice-looking box with a Healing potion and a skill crystal lying on top of it.


    [ Companion Elara, level up +1! ]


    He had stopped keeping track of her XP, it was surprising how fast it came flowing, but then again the first 10 levels didn¡¯t need that much XP, it was from that point onwards that it started needing a lot since it doubled every level so far. He halfway on autopilot put her point in Vitality yet again.


    He saw that Janik was in a similar situation, though he didn¡¯t seem to get the crystal, just the potion and a random box. If nothing else this only confirmed to Sam that the quest rewards for doing the same quest in a group aren¡¯t always the same. He hadn¡¯t properly noticed that before.


    Both of them thought the same thing and opened the Random box right away, no need to wait, after all.

 Ch.027 - Beastfolk dungeon 2

    The familiar glowing light hid what came out of the box before it faded away. In Sam¡¯s case, it left behind two items. The first was a scimitar with a silvery blade with etchings of the lunar phases, the hilt was wrapped in midnight blue leather, the pommel was a polished sphere of half-transparent moonstone and the crossguard looked like a crescent moon. The second was a set of surprisingly normal-looking shoes, a pair of black loafers of all things.


    A second look at the two had the System identify the sword as a Moonblade, the shoes were listed as Flash Step Shoes. The sword was a high D-tier weapon, with a base damage of 40 and a trait that allowed it to do 5 extra damage 10% of the time in shade, darkness or at night. The shoes allowed the wearer to teleport 10m/30ft to somewhere he could see, once a day.


    Sam picked them up and held them in his hands as he looked towards Janik. It seemed that his box gave him a few more things, there were five gems, some weird metallic crystal and a dagger. The dagger was sleek, its blade was straight and narrow, made of a dark metal that didn''t reflect much. The edge had a subtle serrated pattern, black leather-wrapped its handle and had a minimalistic and almost fang-like guard, ending in a pommel adorned with a small, dark gemstone.


    Janik stabbed one of his swords into the ground and picked up the dagger before turning to Sam with a huge smile. ¡°Hey, Sam. You¡¯re never going to guess what I go-¡± As soon as he saw Sam with a scimitar in his hand his sentence stopped and his expression turned to confusion for a solid three seconds before he laughed.


    ¡°Well, it seems we got each other''s things.¡± He added jokingly.


    ¡°Yeah, it seems so. But this fucker has a base damage of 40 and a neat little skill.¡± Sam commented as he held it up, letting Janik take a look at it.


    During the few seconds Janik used to look at it, his expression went from his smiling self to a bad attempt to hide an almost desperate expression in his eyes. ¡°You... I don¡¯t suppose you¡¯re game for a trade?¡± His voice broke a little as he asked that.


    ¡°Well, I could have been but...¡± Sam took a look at the dagger. Ignoring that it looked kind of cool, it seemed to also be of a high D-rank, base damage of 20 and a trait that had 10% of activating, blinding a target for a few seconds. Though impressive it didn¡¯t exactly match the 40 damage the Moonblade did, or possibly 45 when triggered.


    ¡°... It seems the blade might be better. Even if I dedicate more hands to lift it, it¡¯ll make up for that in damage.¡±


    This felt true, doing the simple math, the sword felt like it was around 1.5kg, meaning he would need just under 4 hands to match that, so 4 hands to let him wield it. But comparing it, if he used 4x 10-damage daggers, it would somewhat match, but there was more chance of missing with four attacks than just one, there was different math to how it could be beneficial to have more attacks but when the monsters change to come with Defensive ratings... A single more powerful attack would be worth more than four smaller ones.


    Janik did his best to recompose himself, but it was easy to see that he was shaken, almost like a desperate kid trying to process a way to persuade his parents to give him something he wanted, Janik had a moment of inner crisis.


    ¡°I¡¯m not going to lie to you, that sword is probably worth double the dagger, depending on how they value the Ability. With one hit of that sword, I can do double the damage I can do with both of these.¡± He lifted the sword in his hand to emphasize which swords he was talking about in a small shrug.


    Sam couldn¡¯t argue that the upgrade would hit harder for Janik than for himself. But based on values and percentages, the odds of getting something like this anytime soon were slim at best.


    ¡°Ah, you got some amazing shoes as well.¡± Vaguely gesturing to the shoe with his sword hand yet again he sounded almost complaining, like a kid wanting more candy because someone else is getting it.


    Sam considered Janik¡¯s situation a bit, he was a much higher levelled Player than him, suggesting that he had been doing this for a while. But the swords he was using were low-grade E-rank swords, the worst weapon in their class. He was a swordman so it made sense for him to need swords but he had probably just got the bare minimum and ran with that. Given his level, experience and knowledge, it felt logical that he needed the money for other things. He seemed quite responsible in a way, so it didn¡¯t sound like he was using it for shits and giggles.


    But, according to things he had said before and the little he saw in the market stall earlier, weapons had absurd prices...


    Janik¡¯s expression sank again. ¡°And you got a Random skill crystal...¡± His expression made him seem like he wanted to headbut a tree until only firewood remained.


    ¡°Ok... First of all... Congratulations, I truly mean that but... I can¡¯t help but be extremely envious...¡±


    Sam chuckled a bit, he understood it, completely. Janik had recruited and was training him to be an ally in dungeon runs, and in less than a week he was getting all this stuff. From the sounds of it, it wasn¡¯t just good and expensive items, but... He had to admit that the sword was almost perfectly made for Janik. He understood envy, he did, though they were allies he couldn¡¯t just give things that might be smarter to keep.


    ¡°I can understand that.¡± He smiled back at his envious friend. But he couldn¡¯t stop looking at the sword not only as a powerful tool but as a pile of money. ¡°However... I can¡¯t say that I¡¯m not interested in using it myself, I mean... You did say that Defense ratings were going to be a problem on higher-level monsters.¡±


    ¡°Yeah... I did say that... didn¡¯t I...¡± Again he didn¡¯t look entirely happy about things. He took a moment to think and inhaled deeply before letting out a long sigh. ¡°Listen, I¡¯m not going to let this come between us. If you want to use it, I mean... it¡¯s yours. I¡¯m probably going to keep being envious until I get it out of my system but... It¡¯s up to you.¡± His smile was back, though he wasn¡¯t as happy as normal he was at least being honest and proper about it.


    ¡°I appreciate that, and I¡¯ll admit that it¡¯s a hard choice. How much do things like these go for anyway?¡± Sam needed to consider what to do about it, he didn¡¯t have particular favouritism for daggers, it was just that when he started he couldn¡¯t lift anything else, now his Psyhand limits are much more powerful than before. Upgrading is always a smart move.


    ¡°I don¡¯t remember, but I think this dagger, with a 10% activation change, would go for somewhere around $20-30 thousand or something.¡± He looked at the dagger as he tried to remember, saying those numbers without much thought.


    This had something react in Sam¡¯s mind. A brief thought of Janik only a few moments ago mentioning that the sword cost ¡®easily twice¡¯ the dagger... If that was true then he was holding a $40 000 sword in his hand... Come to think of it, Janik mentioned that the cores of the beastfolk in this dungeon went for around a thousand per core... His bag had a bunch of them, just the 17 normal frogmen would net them 17 000 to share.


    ¡°Are you... are you doing ok there?¡± Janik sounded a bit worried as he looked at Sam, who was looking almost a bit pale.


    ¡°Yeah...¡± Sam replied with a thousand-yard stare as he was processing the sudden jump in the value of things. ¡°... Just trying to get used to the values of things... A week ago I struggled with $100, this is a bit...¡±


    Janik chuckled. ¡°I remember going through the same, take your time.¡± He nodded understandingly as he started to process things. Being already caked in blood and gore he didn¡¯t seem to have a problem being the one digging out the cores this time.


    The good thing was that this gave Sam a moment to go through things.


    Sam sat down on a rock and considered this, he immediately wanted to sell. Suddenly getting at least 40 thousand was... Hard to consider. He could just buy a car cash, or get somewhere to live for quite some time. But at the same time, this was just a random drop, not something he should expect every day, naturally but... It was just so weird to consider.


    As Janik kept digging in the corpses, fishing out core after core, Sam used that time to process the value and weight of things. He did manage to get over the initial shock and started to analyse things properly. Almost had to persuade himself that this was going to keep happening, and if he wanted to keep being a player he might have to just get over it and start considering swinging around tens of thousands in gear.


    Janik completed his gathering, he had piled up the cores for easier cleaning in some water before bagging them. Though Sam couldn¡¯t clean his clothing and body in the same way as the swords, at least he did what he could to get the gore off him. It helped a tiny bit but this was to be expected. Having taken a short moment to process the whole worth thing, Sam had managed to properly persuade himself about the value of things and to accept that swinging around the value of a car was a good thing. Worst-case scenario he could sell things later and get cheaper items.


    However, the question of whether he should sell the sword to Janik or keep it was a bit harder to figure out. As he considered earlier, the damage output was dramatically better, even considering that he would have to use four hands to swing it, the ¡®damage per hand¡¯ went from 5, or 15 in the case of the Vampiric Dagger, to 10. It didn¡¯t sound like a huge improvement compared to the 4x 10dmg daggers he already swung about, but it came in a single hit which would do wonders when Defence ratings became a thing. As an example, now knowing that the bandits had a defence of 10, the only thing that could properly damage them at the time was the Vampiric Dagger, and then only 5 damage came through, critical hits not counted. With this sword, it would let 30 damage through, which was a dramatic upgrade.


    Though... This would increase his damage since Janik had skills that allowed his Attributes to add to the damage, based on his statement this could increase his damage potential substantially.


    Almost to rather than think of something else, his mind moved from the weapons to the Random Skill Crystal. Sam expected it to be random like the one he got earlier, in that it would give him a random skill crystal, but rather it seemed that the crystal was still undefined.


    [ Random Skill Crystal - C


    When consumed will unlock a random C-rank skill in the Player. ]


    ¡°Sooo.. How does this crystal work?¡± Sam asked no one in particular as he stared at the item in his hand. Though it was clear it was meant for Janik.


    ¡°Well, you can either sell it for a surprising amount or use it. As the info says, it¡¯ll give the user a random skill. It can be something dumb to something amazing. You can never have too many skills if you can afford them, so it¡¯s almost always best to use them. Sure... you might get something shit like a skill that protects from sunburn, or you might get something amazing. It¡¯s often worth the risk.¡± Janik commented as if he had done the math, or knew enough about it to confirm.


    ¡°So, even if I get something bad, like the plant-growing thing I got a while back, it¡¯s worth gambling?¡± Sam remembered the niche skill he sold for a pittance back after his first quest. If he had mana he could at least have used it. ¡°What if it needs mana and I can¡¯t use it?¡± Sam had explained the mana thing to Janik earlier, so he should at least know what he meant.


    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    ¡°Then you just need to find an item or skill that gives you mana. A surprising amount of high-rank warriors get something like that to let them use skills that need mana, just like you. You¡¯re just a weird mix since you¡¯re not a warrior and not a mage.¡±


    That made a lot of sense, since Mana seemed to be class-related it would make sense that others shared his status like that. A non-mana class could still get mana-needing skills. Having some spells or something did sound like a good idea.


    ¡°Though, they are expensive, as you can expect.¡± Janik ended as part of his explanation.


    Sam understood the logic there, gaining a new resource was powerful in itself, but it being a gatekeeping kind of skill also raised its value. In the end, Sam decided to consume the Skill Crystal.


    [ Do you wish to learn a Random C-rank skill from the Crystal? ]


    Confirming the question had the crystal glow brightly in his hands before it disintegrated in a pulse into a yellow field of energy. The field hovered for a split second before it all flowed into Sam¡¯s body, making his entire body glow for a second before fading.


    [ Skill [ Eagle Eye ] unlocked. ]


    [ Eagle Eye


    +20% chance to hit ranged targets.


    +10% chance to land a critical hit. ]


    A quick thought, wondering if Psyhand attacks counted as ranged attacks or not had the window updated itself right away.


    [ Eagle Eye


    +20% chance to hit ranged targets. (Affects Psyhand attacks).


    +10% chance to land a critical hit. ]


    Sam smiled widely, this felt almost too perfect, he had struggled with missing every so often, so increasing the odds of hitting buy 20% felt amazing. He knew there was no such thing as a 100% chance to hit, but it was all a mathematical thing, the chance to hit vs the chance to dodge/miss and so on. But based on how often, or rather how rarely he missed, 20% should cover up on that a lot. The bonus of 10% extra to crit was also amazing.


    ¡°Well? Share with the class, what did you get?¡± Janik asked curiously.


    ¡°Should I even share it? I mean, wasn¡¯t it you who said that I should keep this kind of thing to myself?¡± Sam chuckled at Janik¡¯s amusedly annoyed expression. ¡°I got an Eagle Eye skill, it helps me to land hits and critical hits.¡± Sam admitted in the end, he got the expression he was after but decided to share with his mentor nonetheless.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s amazing, a very good skill for you. Congratulations.¡± Janik, as normal, looked honestly happy on Sam¡¯s behalf. ¡°Now you just need some Stealth skill and you''re becoming dangerous!¡± The way he worded and toned it was extremely supportive, making Sam feel good about how he had chosen... or rather ended up focusing on his style.


    ¡°...Thanks.¡± Though it was nice to hear and felt good, it also felt somewhat awkward. Janik was a good man and everything he said and did felt honest, it still felt strange getting direct compliments like that.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we test out your newfound skills by taking another run through the dungeon? We¡¯re done here now and I didn¡¯t have anything else planned for the rest of today anyway.¡± His smile as he got up from his rock strongly suggested that it was his plan all along to have several rounds through this dungeon if it worked out for them.


    ¡°Are you sure? I mean, I can still be one shot in here...¡± Sam felt a bit unsafe. Though he felt safe with Janik, the close call with the Frogman Chief was... well... had Janik not stopped that spear thrust he might have died right away.


    ¡°Of course, I¡¯m not sure...¡± Janik answered honestly, almost sounding a bit annoyed. ¡°I would love to just do lower and safer dungeons forever, but... I¡¯ll be honest and say that I need the money, you do the same. We both need the money, and we both need the experience... I don¡¯t like to go against something this unsafe either but... As long as we can keep you hidden I think we¡¯re good. Besides, your shoes could probably get you out of a sticky situation once, before you exit the Dungeon.¡±


    He was correct, if Sam could avoid being discovered or at least if Janik could keep the aggression on him, it should make it all very simple to handle. The problem was the Chief but knowing their intelligence and somewhat knowing how he does things could be more than enough. And the teleport of the shoes would also help, though high utility in nature it could be used as a defensive teleport as well. Funnily enough, it was in the same range bracket as his Area, meaning that he¡¯d still be in range for a counterattack once he popped away. He could also just escape the next time, being a bit more prepared helped that as well.


    Besides, it would be neat if they got more of the rare items. The odds didn¡¯t look too amazing but, it was a very nice bonus.


    ¡°Ok, let¡¯s give it a go.¡± Sam agreed.


    ¡°Yes! Onwards to riches and Experience!¡± Janik pumped his fist in the air as he started heading towards the exit portal.


    Finding themselves back outside they were first approached by one person, wondering if they succeeded or escaped. Sam accidentally let slip that they succeeded which had them swarmed by group invites. Probably not expecting two players to handle this alone their value probably jumped a lot.


    Janik politely, but loudly, declined any invites, saying that they were fine as they were. This lets them have no problems leaving the influence of the portal before going back and accepting to be pulled back into it.


    Like before they landed in a forest clearing, everything looked the same, the main exception was Janik¡¯s reaction as he took a few steps.


    ¡°Nope, noooo... No. We¡¯re leaving this one and going in again.¡± He sounded instantly against continuing, it wasn¡¯t until Sam got the Dungeon Clear prompt that he understood why.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Bearfolk chief. 0/1


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters killed 0/20


    Rewards:


    1500 xp


    1x Healing potion - D


    Bonus rewards for optional step:


    1000 xp


    Random Box - X


    Chance (1%): C-tier weapon (25%), gear (25%), skill crystal (25%) or misc item (25%). ]


    Rather than frogs they were now based on bears...


    ¡°Soo... do we just.. Exit and go back in?¡± Sam asked.


    ¡°Yeah. Different races have their stats moved around, if I remember, the bears have much lower Dexterity but their Vitality and Strength are higher... That¡¯s very bad.¡± He smiled as he gestured at Sam.


    Sam got the point...


    ¡°See you outside.¡± Janik commented as he suddenly disappeared in a flash of light. Requesting the system to bring him out had the window confirm if he wanted out, confirming it he found himself outside in the landing area just as if they had completed it.


    There were a lot of confused looks from the people outside, they entered less than two minutes ago.


    ¡°Bears.¡± Janik confirmed, the other player¡¯s expressions changed to understanding nods before the duo just went back in again.


    Yet again finding themselves in the clearing, Janik took a few steps and nodded to himself. ¡°That¡¯s better.¡±


    Taking a few steps out of the landing area gave Sam the Dungeon Clear window again.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Rabbitman chief. 0/1


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters killed 0/20


    Rewards:


    1500 xp


    1x Healing potion - D


    Bonus rewards for optional step:


    1000 xp


    Random Box - X


    Chance (1%): C-tier weapon (25%), gear (25%), skill crystal (25%) or misc item (25%). ]


    ¡°From what I¡¯ve read, they are fast and agile, but they are somewhat frail and don¡¯t hit as hard as the others. The problem is their speed, making them hard to hit.¡± Janik explained like he had read about everything in existence.


    ¡°So, sneak attacks should do wonders on them?¡± Sam stated it as a fact but lifted the end of the sentence somewhat asking to make sure.


    ¡°I think so, yes. I feel confident that I can hit them but I don¡¯t know what kind of damage they can do... So I think we¡¯ll test a little. If we find a single one I want to get hit by it once. Then we¡¯ll use that as a base.¡±


    Sam agreed. It made sense, but he couldn¡¯t help but wonder if there existed some guidebooks or something where someone had already written down the math. Putting on the shoes he got, they started sneaking


    They didn¡¯t need to sneak around much before they found the first Rabbitfolk!

 Ch.028 - Progress

    They managed to sneak up on an individual Rabbit, without the ears he was about mid-thigh height on Sam, and his fur was beige, brown with some flecks of white. Its long ears easily reached up to Sam¡¯s chest. Powerful hind legs and small front legs, all in all, he looked like someone just scaled up a rabbit and let them walk or hop around on his back feet like a hybrid of bipedal and whatever rabbits counted as. Oddly adorable but the fact that he was carrying a spear affected the image a bit...


    Janik did as planned, and as he stepped in closer, Sam moved his weapons in range, ready to do his part if needed.


    Stepping out of a bush, as Janik stopped hiding the rabbit¡¯s ears immediately twisted towards him, its eyes following right after. With a powerful thrust of his hind legs, he launched himself forward towards Janik, spear leading the charge. Janik let the attack hit him, it looked dramatic but he wanted to get a sense for it and now he had.


    The rabbit landed gracefully and turned around, launching another thrust at Janik, though this time he parried it sideways and seemingly on purpose made a half-assed attack towards it. The beastfolk easily dodged it, though in all fairness; Sam felt like he could have dodged that one. The fight continued, Janik, parrying or dodging most attacks but seemed to let a few hit him, his attacks became faster and faster to the point that Sam became certain that he couldn¡¯t dodge the attacks if this was a duel. Suddenly Janik¡¯s attacks started landing, the first attack cut deep into the clean fur, opening up a horrifying-looking cut. The rabbit still moving launched a desperate attack but a parry and counter from Janik ended the fight entirely.


    Taking a few deep breaths and calming down, Janik waved Sam over.


    ¡°So, they are very, very fast. I feel I¡¯m a bit faster but they aren¡¯t easy to hit. Not counting my Defense 10 rating; it seems they do 19 damage with their kicks and 26 with their spear.¡±


    Janik drank a potion after he was done talking, letting Sam process things. ¡°From what I can see, their health is 45 with no Defense rating.¡±


    This was very good info for Sam, who was lacking the ability to see the health of anyone but himself and Elara. This was also survivable damage for him, though a critical hit from the spear would still one-shot him. He could survive a critical hit from their kicks, but only once. So the tactic of him not showing himself was still the best.


    He also wanted to give the sword a test, still knowing it would do better in Janik¡¯s hands, he felt surprisingly eager swinging around a silver-looking scimitar in the air. As he was considering things, Sam took care of getting the Core.


    They moved on, sneaking as far as they could, keeping talking and discussion between them to a minimum, rabbits were normally a prey species and probably had very good senses.


    Janik was leading, he seemed to on purpose walk upright even though he was somewhat sneaking, much like the last run through the Dungeon, and it seemed to work as it didn¡¯t take long before he was jumped by three Rabbitmen. All three had spears and came from seemingly nowhere, clearly having readied an ambush behind some large enough trees.


    Expertly blocking two of the attacks, Janik had to tank the third as the spear raked across his chest. They might be weak, comparatively speaking, but they seemed to work well together.


    Sam took this as his opening and swung all weapons somewhat spread out across the three rabbits. Splitting the weapons up between them, feeling confident in his damage he used 2x 10dmg daggers on two of them, the scimitar on the last. The 5dmg daggers were split up between them. The Scimitar landed true and hard, digging deep into the body of the little rabbitman, the following two 5dmg daggers did the same and ended his life right away. Though a bit overkill one of the daggers also landed a critical hit, it didn¡¯t feel necessary but it was neat that it happened at all. One dagger missed its target, leaving it barely alive, but Janik handled that instantly.


    Feeling good about the fact that had it not been for the missing 1 dagger, he would have taken all three out right away, Sam stepped out of hiding and walked over to Janik:


    ¡°That was great, shame that it was three of them, he landed a decent hit, but I think we¡¯re getting really good at this.¡± Janik complimented them both.


    Sam agreed, that this kind of fight worked very well for them, the danger would come when he was also attacked in the future, but for now, it was working surprisingly well. They dug out the cores like always and continued.


    The other groups they found were either one or two individuals, which simplified the attack drastically. Sam wasn¡¯t sure if it was because Janik kept focus, or the extra hit chance from the Eagle Eye, but he landed his hits more often than he did with the frogs. It felt surprisingly great to have this level of success. Given Janik¡¯s skill in parrying, he didn¡¯t get too many attacks in comparison to Sam, but he managed to parry everything coming his way. Their party was missing a few roles to become perfect, but their mix worked very well even so! When they managed to sneak up on them properly there was no chance of survival, as Sam¡¯s remote attack only let the targets see floating weapons without any hint about where the enemies were hiding.


    Janik opted to try out Elara¡¯s Venom on them, the next time they found a single target Sam tested this with an Envenomed dagger. It worked for several ticks, the rabbit becoming more and more sceptical and paranoid as the damage ticked up, but it was still weak enough that it managed to resist it eventually. A second dose did the same, so this test was scrapped for now in favour of the faster alternative. Elara needed to get her Venom upgraded for this to become a viable tactic.


    Every encounter worked like this, if they were jumped or they did the jumping, Janik focusing on becoming the main target let Sam hide and do his thing. Whether he was discovered or not never became a problem due to Janik not being exactly harmless if they turned their back on him.


    [ Levelup +1! ]


    Though levelling up was an amazing moment, it didn¡¯t bring that much to the table besides some more weight. He still needed four hands to use the sword and it didn¡¯t give him another point of Energy, so at the moment it just felt like a tiny stepping stone more than anything. Though he did enjoy looking back to the time when he needed multiple hands to lift just one dagger, now he could flail around 20 of them.


    In the end, they again stood in front of the clearing that acted as their little village. This time, rather than a swamp and wooden housing, there were a bunch of holes in the ground and some mounds here and there. It was nicely lit up by the sun and looked surprisingly idyllic with the little plant life surrounding the various burrows and just spread across the field.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Rabbitman chief. 0/1


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters killed 16/20 ]


    The duo could see only two of the remaining four rabbits, the Chief was nowhere to be seen.


    ¡°Hmm... I think the Chief is going to be worse to fight, just imagine the speed of the normal ones...¡± Janik commented in a low whisper. ¡°But I can go out there and get their focus, if I¡¯m close enough to the forest you should be able to stay hidden.¡±


    That was a good idea, they were fast but none seemed to be able to dodge the swarm of blades coming their way, especially if Janik was keeping their focus. They still had the escape option so this was feeling surprisingly viable.


    ¡°If you¡¯re comfortable with that, I¡¯m good.¡± Sam agreed in the end.


    ¡°Great, if possible leave the Chief to me!¡± Janik whispered a little bit louder as he got up, completely stopping to sneak he just walked into the opening, instantly seen by the two rabbits they saw who shrieked, most likely alerting the others. He stopped well within Sam¡¯s Area but far enough from the forest edge that there was space between them.


    ¡°Bring it, you adorable fluffballs!¡± He shouted out as a challenge to the lot, if the shriek didn¡¯t warn the others then this would.


    The rabbits weren¡¯t entirely dumb, the two standing there threw their spears from outside of sword range, though they had to be a bit closer than the frogs were as their underdeveloped arms couldn¡¯t throw as strong or as far. Sam didn¡¯t even need to react, Janik parried and redirected both spears effortlessly.


    From the holes in the ground came three more individuals, the two first ones looked similar to the others, being normal ranked targets, but one was different. He was a little taller than the others but had a more slender and lanky build. Even through the fur, they could see more developed leg muscles on him. He was a sprinter or jumper... or whatever you categorized this on rabbits. He wielded a spear like the others.


    Slowly closing the distance towards Janik, the two rabbits now lacking spears took to pouncing on him. Having taken his time to prepare properly, Sam had zero problems slicing down both incoming rabbits as soon as they pounced. He expected that to happen due to their lack of spears and method of attack in earlier fights. They were sliced to shreds in mid-air, Sam having split up his weapons between them, and since one couldn¡¯t easily dodge after jumping this turned into a surprisingly easy attack.


    Saying that this made the others hesitant was an understatement, the two other rabbits took a few steps back, seeming like they wanted to run, but a shriek from the lanky one had them hesitantly step back forward. The taller of the three pounced forwards first, which had the other two follow suit. He was dramatically faster, holding his spear forward as he kicked off he made himself into a weapon. The others did similar things. Having already agreed on a split of focus, Sam focused on the two additional targets.


    If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    As Janik parried the incoming spear, it looked like he was just barely able to react in time. The two other rabbits were easier for Sam to handle now that he was used to them. Since they followed the same straightforward angle of attack, both fell easily to his attacks, one of which even landed a critical hit. As the two fell lifeless to the ground, the Chief turned slightly to confirm what was going on. Janik used this moment to slice after the Chief but a quick step backwards had him miss.


    This new position became a problem for the chief. His ears twitched around as he seemed to try and scan the area, but since Sam didn¡¯t need to move the slightest to use his Psyhands, he had no chance to find him. Janik stepped in and attacked again, the chief dodging one slice and parrying the other with its spear. Sam sent in a barrage of attacks but the speed of the rabbit was quite the thing to witness.


    Dodging and parrying the best it could, managing to avoid the Scimitar, one of the 10dmg daggers was parried and a few of the 5dmg ones were dodged as well. However, the Vampiric dagger, three 10dmg daggers and 7x 5dmg daggers landed with one landing a critical hit.


    This wasn¡¯t enough to kill it, but it severely wounded it. It got a bit sluggish which let one of Janik¡¯s two slices land properly, though the rabbit Chief parried the first slice the landing cut killed it instantly.


    ¡°Woo!¡± Sam¡¯s excitement got the better of him as he jumped out from behind the tree where he was hiding with a fist pump in the air. Janik chuckled at the excitement of his ally.


    Like every time before, the Dungeon Clear window popped up and completed itself.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Rabbitman chief. 1/1 - Complete


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters killed 20/20 -Complete


    Rewards:


    1500 xp


    1x Healing potion - D


    Bonus rewards for optional step:


    1000 xp


    Random Box - X  ]


    [ XP to lv.12: 3617 / 10240 ¨€???? ]


    [ Elara XP to lv.10: 2472 / 2560 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€ ]


    Having earlier levelled up, it was still nice to see that he was getting a decent chunk into the next level. Killing all the 20 creatures in question netted him 4650 XP, counting the quest rewards. It was a good step and it meant that he could make it to level 12 in two more runs, but after that, he¡¯d need four runs or something. The doubling XP needed per level was surprisingly harsh, but it did put a strange value on grinding, which in turn had increased the odds of getting neat gear or rewards.


    The rewards were dumped in their hands as always, glancing over to Janik he saw that his ally didn¡¯t get any neat boons this round either, they both held just a potion and a box. Not waiting they both opened them and as the light subsided Janik¡¯s box had left more crafting materials. Sam¡¯s Random Box had left crafting materials but also a small ring! The ring had a silver band with a tiny ruby-red gem, picking it up the gem seemed to be vaguely warm to the touch.


    [ Ring of Flames


    +20% Fire Spell Damage


    +10% chance to ignite hit target.  ]


    He let out a dissatisfied click with his tongue, bringing Janik¡¯s attention.


    ¡°You got something bad?¡± Though he sounded normal there was a slight hint of annoyance yet again as he held only Aether Gems while Sam held a ring.


    ¡°Yeah, well. It looks expensive but I can¡¯t use this.¡± Holding it up for Janik to inspect it, Sam had to take some interest out of his ally¡¯s annoyance.


    ¡°Well... yeah... You¡¯re not a fire mage but this thing is powerful... Very much so. It¡¯s not always that you get supporting skills on items like this... I¡¯m not sure how much this will go for but... probably at least $40 000.¡± He again looked happy on Sam¡¯s behalf but seemed somewhat annoyed as he looked down on his two Aether gems.


    Sam couldn¡¯t help but feel slightly guilty in a strange way, though it wasn¡¯t his fault he was getting the expensive stuff.


    Janik took a moment to inhale and exhale deeply, seemingly calming himself down.


    ¡°You know, beginners'' luck can stretch only so far.¡± His expression was somewhat deadpan and annoyed. ¡°Are you hiding some bullshit loot bonus in that Ascendance shit of yours?¡± His smile slowly grew back but it was clear that he was still envious. If nothing else he carried it decently, all things considered.


    ¡°To be honest, I don¡¯t know... I can¡¯t see anything mentioned in the info about it?¡± Answering honestly to the question, Sam realised that he knew less than he should about the Ascendant thing.


    ¡°Well!¡± Letting out a louder-than-normal word, Janik forcefully drew focus and changed the topic with zero subtlety. ¡°Let¡¯s leave this place when we¡¯re done and take a few more runs before we turn in for the night.¡± He smiled properly again, seeming to look somewhat forward to it.


    Having gathered the cores they left the Dungeon for another run. As they exited the dungeon they changed the plans a bit, rather than just going straight back in they took a well-deserved lunch break. During this, they had to let other people know they weren¡¯t interested in grouping up. Though that would increase survivability, it would also affect the gained experience. It wouldn¡¯t affect the loot chance due to this being considered a quest reward but the unknown PvP factor lingered in Sam¡¯s mind. As Janik explained in the first dungeon they did, since the Dungeon rewards always manifested automatically like that, it was a timing one could easily abuse where a potential target was focused on what they got, to attack them.


    It didn¡¯t sound like this was a normal thing to happen, but he still felt slightly paranoid. He had only known Janik for a relatively short time but unless he was a master actor, Sam felt confident in his placed trust in this weird man.


    Once they had eaten they went back into the Dungeon for a third run. This run had them fight Wolffolk, who were some mini werewolf-looking people. They used rusty swords instead of spears, too broken to even consider bringing them out for selling. They were much better at using tactics and doing a better job at surrounding them. Their sense of smell forced the duo to consider the wind more. The Chief was very strong, landing some terrifying hits on Janik, but with his parrying ability and now with Sam¡¯s upgraded arsenal with the sword and slightly more experienced sneaking, they made decent work of it.


    Janik was going through potions at a decent rate, to the point that Sam donated a few E-rank and one of his D-rank potions to the tank of the group.


    Another run, another Random box, another batch of XP


    [ XP to lv.12: 8267 / 10240 ¨€¨€¨€¨€? ]


    [ Companion Elara, level up +1! ]


    [ Elara XP to lv.11: 2237 / 5120 ¨€¨€??? ]


    As the norm by now, he put Elara¡¯s point in Vitality. The Random boxes were somewhat lacklustre this time, they both got crafting materials, Sam ended up with two, and Janik also got a potion, but that was about it. None of them got the 1% bonus item from the optional step either.


    Gathering the cores before leaving and entering again, they decided that this was going to be the last run before they took the rest of the day to relax. It wasn¡¯t that interesting compared to the other ones, the difference was that they were fighting Squirrelfolk this round. They were even less robust than the rabbits, but they were even faster and were exceptional climbers, using ranged weapons which were mostly sharpened sticks. Though Sam¡¯s remote attack did wonders for that, he missed surprisingly often given branches and fast, jittery movement, he felt a bit bad the first few hits as it didn¡¯t feel right attacking something that adorable.


    The fight at the end was done almost entirely in a large tree, the duo almost falling more than once but in the end, they managed to take out the Chief and his group of squirrels surprisingly easily.


    [ Levelup +1! ]


    [ XP to lv.13: 2677 / 20480 ????? ]


    [ Elara XP to lv.11: 4562 / 5120 ¨€¨€??? ]


    With a bag full of cores, the level-up point put in Spirit for the Energy, weight and extra hands, Sam was looking forward to getting all of that sold. He was also looking forward to a good night''s rest. Though he hadn¡¯t been swinging his body around as much as Janik had, he was still tired from all the sneaking about and the adrenaline boost from the danger of fighting.


    Again none of them got the 1% item. But in addition to the Aether crystal, both their Random boxes contained something more!

 Ch.029 - Rental!

    As the second Random Box¡¯s glow faded, both of their Random Boxes did the same, it deposited not only an Aether Crystal of decent quality, but both left a piece of armour on the ground!


    Before Janik laid what looked like a breastplate, it was entirely metal and had clasps on the side to allow you to put it on and clasp it together without needing assistance. It had some runic engravings on the front and looked surprisingly light. It didn¡¯t have arms or a neck, just a chest, stomach and back covering.


    On the ground next to Sam laid a black leather armoured vest, it looked like it would cover his entire torso except his arms. It was black leather with some subtle patterns engraved, and it seemed almost like it shimmered oddly where the shadows of the trees hit it.


    [ Shadowleather Vest - D (mid-end)


    Defence: 40


    +10% Stealth


    +10% Evasion ]


    ¡°Jesus fucking christ...¡± Janik commented as he looked at his metallic armour. This caused Sam to break out of his little bubble of wondering just how powerful his armour was and have a glance at the one Janik was holding.


    [ Sentinel¡¯s Breastplate - D (mid-end)


    Defence: 46 (40+6)


    +15% Physical resistance


    +5% Health ]


    Sam was amazed, this felt too good to be true. The armour he was currently using, the one he got less than a day ago from the Bandits was a substantial 2x upgrade from the one he wore before, which again was an upgrade from the TAC freebie. But this was an amazing 4x upgrade from that, and it came with two traits that fit him perfectly. Likewise, the one Janik got seemed to do wonders for him.


    Based on the damage numbers Janik explained earlier, not counting critical hits, nothing in this dungeon could even properly hurt them... The Chiefs might land a solid hit and do something, and he didn¡¯t know about the Bearfolk, but everything else felt surprisingly survivable.


    Before Sam had the time to ask Janik about things, his friend had already stripped him of the old armour and was putting on the new one. Sam looked at his own for a moment, he understood the Stealth bonus but how did the Evasion work?


    [ Evasion +10%


    When an attack lands, there is a 10% chance that it might still miss. ]


    This felt insane, he had no idea how that would work in practice but this meant that it dramatically increased his survivability. Not only could he take harder hits and come out alive or unscathed with this armour, but it helped him avoid being seen or taking damage altogether. It almost felt tailored to him.


    Not wasting more time, he got the bandit piece off his body and put on the new one, using a good solid few minutes to get it sitting properly so it didn¡¯t feel too restrictive to move in. The list of his stats updated when he took the old armour off and put the new one on, listing the new numbers and statistics to Sam¡¯s enjoyment.


    ¡°Ok, I was... No.. I¡¯m still envious of your shit, but this makes it much better.¡± Janik smiled widely, seeming incredibly happy for his new piece of armour.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m glad for you, now I don¡¯t feel as bad as I did before.¡± Sam smiled in return letting Elara slither back up his arm and drape over his shoulders. Though he didn¡¯t feel entirely guilty before, he still felt slightly so, this dulled that significantly.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go eat something good and chill for now, I think we earned it. We can sell our shit at the cabin and... if you feel like blowing $300 for a single night, we can consider that, or we can just sleep outside somewhere.¡±


    ¡°But...¡± Sam thought for a second as he brought up a thought. ¡°Can¡¯t we just sleep in here? If others can¡¯t forcefully enter, isn¡¯t it much safer for us?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯d think so, and you¡¯d be right, but the System boots us out after a while if we don¡¯t leave on our own after completing it. I have heard of skilled or powerful enough Players tying up the Dungeon Boss in the lower level ones, in that case, it¡¯d work but... then you have an angry creature there..¡± Janik shrugged during his explanation, making it sound almost like he had tried this before but didn¡¯t like it.


    And he had a good point. If the dungeon could be kept open by not completing it, it¡¯d work out, but... Sam wouldn¡¯t be happy if he was just tied up after having all his friends murdered... so he could see the problem.


    ¡°With our new gear, I think we can either go to another Dungeon for some better XP or run this one a few times tomorrow. But I honestly think it might be smarter to just waste the $300 for the safety. I mean... I doubt you forgot what happened this morning.¡± Janik smiled almost like he was edging on Sam to react to something dumb.


    Sam had to agree, he was fine camping outside but as weird as it sounded, it was more dangerous than being homeless. And it wasn¡¯t due to the local animals and monsters, strangely enough.


    ¡°Yeah, I agree...¡± He felt that it was an insane amount of money, especially for what you got, but at the same time, one core from in here would cover the night for three people. Even thinking like that almost made him worry about his sense of money, spending $10 felt like a massive investment earlier, and now he was using gear probably nearing $100 000... Though he had already had this discussion when he got the sword, it hit strangely weird again.


    Once all cores were gathered and they felt good about leaving, they exited the Dungeon and landed outside. Though it was getting dark, Sam still felt weird about something inside the Tower... They moved to the Cabin. As they entered they went over to the counter where the man asked what he could help with.


    They decided to sell their solo stuff first, to keep it separate for simplicity. Sam didn¡¯t pay too much attention to how much Janik was selling for, he was too busy making sure he didn¡¯t mix the collective stuff with his things.


    He didn¡¯t have that much of personal items to sell, mainly Aether crystals which went for $1000 each and the Bandit armour, also going for $1000. His mind almost exploded when he saw the $50 000 for the ring.


    Adding to the surprise was when he figured out that between them, they had 84 Cores, four of those were from the Chiefs but the 80 was from a mix of the non-Chief monsters. The Chief cores went for $1500, the others for $1000. This ended up with them splitting $86 000, in turn meaning that today¡¯s gain was $95 000 for Sam.


    ¡°I can send that to your accounts if you want?¡± The man behind the counter asked politely.


    ¡°Yeah, but we both want a bed for the night. Oh, also, let me check something.¡± Janik added, being much calmer than the thousand-yard stare and not mentally present, Sam next to him.


    Taking a moment to confirm the prices of the Stealth ring, as well as daggers showed that they under-valued the daggers, they were 2k each, not 1k. This bumped the money Sam owed Janik to $16 000. Deciding to handle this right away rather than waiting for some reason, Sam¡¯s cut was lowered in a sense, but he still ended up gaining solid gear for himself in addition to $79 000, which boggled his mind. Janik also got a solid chunk of money, Sam didn¡¯t notice how much personal stuff he had to sell but between getting his owed sum and the sold stuff, his share netted him at least $60 000.


    This was also not counting the gear they were currently using.


    ¡°So.¡± Janik turned to Sam with a wide smile as he placed the Shadow Fang dagger on the counter. The man scanned it right away as soon as it was there, not wasting time, but Janik looked at Sam. ¡°Do you want to buy the dagger of me? I¡¯d rather you have it for the same price I¡¯d get from him, there is no difference in value but it¡¯d set you back-¡± Looking at the man behind the counter and eyeing his tablet, the hint of the value being mentioned was hard to miss.


    ¡°$22 000.¡± The man updated them without considering the sum much.


    This sent Sam into another existential crisis, he wanted it, he really, really did. Adding that to his swarm of blades would do wonders for everything, but... it was so much money... At the same time, thinking about it practically, it was something akin to the ring. It was expensive but worth it. The 5x TAC markup meant that if he wanted to buy this later, it would be over 100k. And worst case, like the ring, he could just sell it later at the same cost he paid for it now...


    His voice replied, in almost a whisper, barely audible as he stared without focusing anywhere looking like he was in some kind of terrifying trance. ¡°...I want it...¡±


    Janik laughed. There was no doubt in his expression that he somewhat expected this to happen. Which explains why he waited with it until everything else was handled.


    ¡°Shal I give the $22 000 from your part to him, then?¡± The store owner asked, again not seeming to react that this was a life-changing amount of money.


    Janik smiled still, and Sam struggled to consider what to answer. He wanted it...But 22k could keep him living in TAC for 2/3 of a year... On the other hand, he could afford it and still live in TAC for well over a year, he was currently swinging around a sword worth twice that. He had persuaded himself to handle money differently earlier but... it didn¡¯t seem like it stuck.


    Sam nodded, it felt less bad than agreeing vocally. The man handled this expertly and before he knew it the money was deducted from his share, netting Janik a much larger chunk of money. That said, even ¡®losing¡¯ the 22k he walked away from there with close to $60 000 in gains, again not considering the actual worth of his new gear.


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    Taking control of the situation, Janik let the man take the 300 from each of them, they were given light information that could also be found on a plaque next to the counter of how this worked. It was communal, easily 20 bunk beds in a single room, but there were solid lockers that could be properly locked. All of them were numbered and the plaque encouraged that if you saw someone fiddling with one of the numbered lockers, but the bed with said number was still occupied, let people know in case there was theft.


    Simple enough, and each morning as you registered as awake, the bed was made and freed up and you got your breakfast.


    Having handled that, the duo spent the rest of the day talking about what they had done, what could be done better and perhaps what they should consider for tomorrow.


    Janik had taken a sip of a drink they had ordered with their dinner, it was expensive, sure, but to their credit, it was pretty good.


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure, if you want we can run the same dungeon a few times tomorrow. We have been astronomically lucky, so I don¡¯t expect to get any gear. The XP is... Acceptable as is the experience but with what we have now, we can probably go somewhere better.¡±


    ¡°I need four more to get a level if we do everything in there. After that, I expect I¡¯d need closer to ten so that shit scales fast...¡± Sam commented. The needed XP per level doubled from the previous, meaning the needed runs you¡¯d need also doubled exponentially.


    Based on the numbers explained in the Dungeon, he could probably survive quite well in there now, but it was still not smart to go in alone if he took some hits. His armour was surprisingly amazing but it only took a few solid hits to take down his lacking health.


    Lowering his voice, Sam started talking about stats and choices. ¡°Should... should I start putting points in Vitality or something? I¡¯m feeling a bit... easy to kill at times.¡±


    ¡°Ah.¡± Janik realised the change in topic and sat up properly, getting a bit closer when speaking about something that personal. ¡°That¡¯s a hard thing to consider. Most people tend to put some points in, just for safety, you know? Your armour is pretty good and if one of those frogs were to hit you, you¡¯d take no damage. On the other hand, if they were to critically hit you, you¡¯d die in one hit... so... there is zero room for error.¡±


    Not looking super satisfied with his own answer he thought about it for a few seconds. ¡°The problem is that there is no ¡®best way¡¯ to do things. You need to do what works for you, and how you plan to do things. Sneaking about and whatnot is good but what happens when you¡¯re discovered? Heavy investment into one Attribute is fine, and great, even, if you can find a way to leverage it to support your lacking aspects. Like, if you could find a skill or something that¡¯d have your Health calculated off your Spirit, that would solve your problems.¡±


    During his explanation, Janik took out his smartphone and started looking for something before finally turning it around, and showing Sam.


    The phone displayed a historical price for a skill crystal that let you calculate Health from Spirit rather than Vitality. ¡°So, it seems that the price you¡¯d have to pay fluctuated, but the last few went for around $7 million.¡±


    This deflated Sam a lot, he expected it to be expensive but not only was this rare, but only a few sales and they seemed to go immediately after being put out.


    ¡°So, odds aren¡¯t good...¡± Not even considering having the funding, there also needed to be some.


    [ Conditions met. Compulsory Ascendance System quest. ]


    Sam¡¯s expression turned from the slight annoyance of the skill, to fear. Janik reacted with a deep sense of worry.


    ¡°What is it?¡± His hands instinctively moved to his swords.


    Sam¡¯s eyes calmed once he properly read the message, he was given a quest, he wasn¡¯t going to be pulled somewhere random or worse.


    ¡°No... it¡¯s fine... hold on...¡± Sam¡¯s eyes stared into nothingness, a special kind of acting that any Player would recognize.


    [ Ascendance system quest; Rental


    -Entity #%&/¡è requests control over the Ascendant Player¡¯s body.


    -Consume the bead and surrender your body and skills to #%&/¡è for a short time.


    Reward


    -Tailored Skill according to the Player¡¯s play style.


    Note


    -This quest cannot be abandoned.


    -This quest will force-activate if the Player postpones or avoids it. ]


    His expression fell into uncertainty and despair, this was horrible. In Sam¡¯s mind, this was worse than the flesh dungeon. At least in there, he had control over himself and could do things himself, control himself. In this case, he was surrendering his body to some... entity. It didn¡¯t even list what this person or creature was, just some entity...


    ¡°I got a new... quest...¡± Sam finally replied to Janik, but put a strange pressure on it, hoping that he would understand.


    ¡°Oh shit.¡± Janik leaned back forward in his chair. ¡°Last time was surprisingly lucky but... what is it this time?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m supposed to surrender control of my body to some... entity...¡± Sam didn¡¯t look exactly terrified, but he looked scared, doing his best to keep composed but there was a clear undercutting of fear in there.


    ¡°That... that sounds horrible... Abandon it, wait for the next quest.¡± Janik half-commanded, seeming to agree on the icky nature of it.


    ¡°I can¡¯t, it¡¯s a compulsory quest. It¡¯ll even auto-activate if I try to ignore it...¡± Having said that made everything feel surprisingly worse. Placing his hands on the table he realised that in his right hand was now a small bead, easily swallowable but it wasn¡¯t there before. Though that part wasn¡¯t as strange as it sounds; every Dungeon run had spawned items, after all. But the fact that it was just subtly put in his hand was surprisingly disconcerting.


    ¡°Ah... fuck... That complicates things... Who.. or what, wants your body? For what?¡± Janik tried asking in a hushed but surprisingly urgent tone.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know... The name is corrupted-¡± Sam took up his phone and used a moment to spell out the #%&/¡è characters. ¡°-It displays like this. The quest explains it as an ¡®entity¡¯ and... for ¡®a short time¡¯.¡±


    ¡°Oh... yeah... That¡¯s a lot of wildcards. What if we chain you up in the forest or something?¡± Janik forced an uncomfortable smile.


    Sam liked that idea, chained up and he¡¯d be fine out in nowhere, he could yell and scream as much as he wanted but at least he wouldn¡¯t go nuke a city or something. There was no telling what this entity could do while in control.


    The quest popped up again in the middle of his focus, with a new sentence added.


    [ Ascendance system quest; Rental


    -Entity #%&/¡è requests control over the Ascendant Player¡¯s body.


    -Consume the bead and surrender your body and skills to #%&/¡è for a short time.


    -Entity #%&/¡è must be free to act, or the Player will be punished for failing the quest.


    Reward


    -Tailored Skill according to the Player¡¯s play style.


    Note


    -This quest cannot be abandoned.


    -This quest will force-activate if the Player postpones or avoids it. ]


    ¡°Fuck.¡± Sam broke out right after reading the edit. ¡°The System updated it, Mr. Entity needs to be able to be free to act or... I¡¯ll get punished.¡±


    ¡°Well... that complicates things a bit...¡± Janik leant back in his chair, pondering, seeming like he was trying to find a loophole or idea.


    [ Player is actively trying to sabotage ¡®Rental¡¯. Force-activating.]


    As Sam tried to comment on the new window to Janik, his hand moved without his input and slammed against his mouth, throwing the bead into the back of his throat. The involuntary reaction had him swallow and the ordeal was done.


    ¡°It auto-activated-¡± Sam managed to say to his friend, still feeling surprisingly fine. ¡°-Follow me, if it¡¯s bad; just... stop me.¡± Sam said this out as an order, he didn¡¯t want to die, he wanted to continue everything. But the thought of being a puppet of the System, even more than he already was, churned his very core in disgust.


    Janik looked like he wanted to say no, but he steeled his expression and reluctantly nodded.


    Sam felt his eyelids grow heavy, almost like he hadn¡¯t been sleeping for days and couldn¡¯t stay awake anymore. Wanting to keep them open with his hands they remained lying on the table, his head dipped forward and his eyes closed.

 Ch.030 - Waking up

    Sam woke up with a jolt, his head was thundering with a severe headache as he looked around himself with confused eyes. The room he was in was nicely decorated with roses and hearts, he was not alone in a bed that looked like a large heart with large curtains draped around it. He quickly found out that he was naked, placing his hands for better support as he turned to take in the rest of the room there was a moan as he had placed his hand on one of the people in bed with him. There were two human women of different skin colours, a female kobold and a female harpy. His mind raced, how the hell did this happen, what went on? What¡¯s going on?


    Like starting a video on fast forwards what felt like three days rushed through his mind, he caught glimpses but all the glimpses had him remember everything as vividly as when he was there. The Entity that used his body... used it for some strange freedom. He went drinking, which would explain the headache, lighter drugs were consumed and in the end, he went to the brothel where he still was.


    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re awake?¡± The dark-skinned woman smiled at him as she properly turned around, stretching and bending more erotically than needed, pressing her bare skin against his. ¡°You paid for another round, and it seems you¡¯re ready to go~¡± Her tone was playful and smiling, everything Sam expected escorts to be from what he had read and guessed.


    His train of thought was derailed with the subtlety of a sledgehammer as a hand grasped his awake member, the kobold woman had taken hold of it and started round two without him getting time to process.


    Exiting the heart room he had been in for a while, he felt strangely fine. The headache was still lingering but he couldn¡¯t say he had disliked the time since he woke up. He was also surprisingly glad that the only thing the entity did with his body was partying. Not being able to remember anyone getting hurt... save his liver to a normal amount, and the two rounds he experienced with the escorts, one passive in remembrance. Still, the latter was much more active, he was... oddly fine with all of this.


    Sam was currently in his early 20¡¯s, this wasn¡¯t his first time but it was his first time with non-humans. He had seen images and videos with non-humans on the internet before the event that ended with him on the streets, he was a normal teen with access to the internet, so the concept was nothing new. However, experiencing it was.


    He followed the hallways and found himself entering into a large room. The room had several doors and hallways exiting, it was nicely furnished much like a nightclub, restaurant and bar mixed. There were scantly clothed women of all races and species walking around, some served drinks, and some were slightly too intimate in the open for his taste, but the strange embarrassment wanted to just have him leave. There was, however, the problem that he was currently wearing just normal clothing. All his gear and items were locked away, remembering back to yesterday, in a drunken haze he had stumbled in here and the protection working in the establishment had forced him to lock all weapons and gear in a security checkpoint of sorts. He vaguely remembers that all he needed to do was to return and they would return all his shit as he leaves.


    ¡°There he is!¡± A familiar voice called, even though Janik¡¯s voice was shouting it was barely enough to hear it from the ambient volume of the room. Turning towards him, his only friend came walking with a surprisingly wide grin but his expression had him looking destroyed, Elara was draped across his shoulders. ¡°I was surprised but glad it went this way.¡± He smiled as he came over to where Sam was, letting Elara slither over to her master¡¯s shoulder again.


    Her tongue flicked against his skin as she climbed back and pressed the top of her head against his neck after she had coiled herself loosely around his neck and shoulders.


    ¡°Ah... err...¡± Feeling surprisingly embarrassed, his only friend caught him exiting a brothel. Sam was not uncomfortable around intimacy or nudity, a surprisingly normal thing in the modern world with the internet, after all. But it was different as it happened to him.


    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry, I come here often, so don¡¯t fear.¡± Janik smiled as he put a hand on his shoulder, almost to break the ice or lower his embarrassment. ¡°Come, let¡¯s eat something and talk.¡±


    Not letting Sam respond, he pushed him over to a booth for the two of them to sit. There was a small plaque listing that you could use to order online and pre-pay, you just scanned a code and used their online menu, listing the table number as you did so. Janik ordered something and asked Sam what he wanted.


    Sam couldn¡¯t say no to that, he had used a substantial amount of energy lately and was indeed quite hungry.


    ¡°So-¡± Janik started once the orders were in. ¡°-How much do you remember?¡±


    ¡°Surprisingly much, but surprisingly little... I remember the alcohol, women, and some flashes in between... But that¡¯s about it. I don¡¯t remember how we left Aetheria, where I went or... the important details...¡± Sam was hesitant to respond as he played through things in his mind. He realised that though he remembered a lot of details, there was even more missing.


    Janik explained things from his angle, he hated the need for him to agree to stop him if the need came to it. He wouldn¡¯t have it any other way if the roles were reversed, but he still felt the need to mention it. Once the Entity took over, Sam¡¯s eyes changed. They became almost galactic, his pupil, iris and eye-white all disappeared to look almost like a nebula lava lamp or something. His whole aura changed and the first thing he asked was where the women were at.


    Sam was... confused, but let Janik continue to explain that the Entity, named something sounding painful to even consider using human vocal cords to say, had obtained this body through rental. He refused to elaborate. But he wanted it for pleasure, so he only wanted to experience things a human body could experience. Specifically having pre-decided that he wanted to try alcohol, drugs and sex.


    Doing his best he successfully steered the entity away from hard narcotics that would fuck Sam¡¯s system up, it ended up as the light stuff and alcohol. The sex part was not an issue as the Brothel was not only legal, it was well known in New York for having legal and controlled non-humans. The trip back from Aetheria was simple, ¡®Sam¡¯ hired a taxi of sorts that took them back to the transport area taking them to Earth. From there they went straight to a bar where the Entity used Sam¡¯s body to experience things. He only had a few days which is why he woke up like he did, but he had discussed this with Janik before and wanted to reward Sam a little for the rental, which is why the second round was paid for... Though all payment was done with Sam¡¯s own money.


    This prompted him to check his account, a few filtrations in the app later he found out that the Entity had blown around $4000 in two days. Most of it was at bars or restaurants, but also at the Brothel, transport and certain unmarked transactions.


    ¡°Oh... is that all...¡± Sam commented. He was still glad that things were mainly pleasure and experiences of that sort, the worst he currently had was a headache, and it all ended up with the four girls... So if nothing else it ended well.


    ¡°Is that all.¡± Janik laughed as he quoted Sam with a mocking tone. ¡°I¡¯d say that you were insanely lucky. Sure you blew some money on it but you could have been on a murder spree, get hurt or killed, but instead you spent two days partying.¡±


    ¡°Yeah... I suppose you have a point there...¡± Sam didn¡¯t have anything to retort with. He was 100% correct. Though this had hit his bank relatively hard, about $4000, at least he was alive and didn¡¯t wake up covered in blood after a massacre or something.


    Janik leant forward with the seriousness of a heart attack as he looked Sam straight in the eyes, frankly, it was a bit intimidating and caught Sam off guard.


    ¡°I haven¡¯t been with a harpy yet, how was it?¡±


    The pressure lifted immediately, having Sam let out a relieved and nervous chuckle and before he could answer, Janik continued. ¡°They¡¯re a bit pricier so I never got around to trying it. Their lithe bodies, wings, feet and... other.. differences.¡± He used his hands to almost mimic holding one in the air like a doll. Though that said, he wasn¡¯t obscene about it, more like it was a way for him to emphasise his points.


    This kind of openness about sex and escorts was strange to Sam. His friends might have bragged earlier about things, but at that point, they were teens, not having wide experience nor knowing how to really talk about things.


    Sam took this as a sign of their friendship, when young he always wanted a close and good friend with whom he could talk about everything. Having just known Janik for a few days, he was still new in a sense, but his openness, his supportive nature and friendly personality almost felt like he had known him for years.


    ¡°Well, it was different, I¡¯ll tell you that.¡± Sam indulged his friend and went into detail about his time with the harpy escort, touching on the time with the Kobold as well, but though that was also interesting he could see in Janik¡¯s eyes that it wasn¡¯t his first time learning about those, and was still more interested about the Harpy.


    Their food came out eventually, and it was eaten at great speed, the Entity hadn¡¯t eaten that much the last few days as it wasn¡¯t what he wanted to experience. Janik had managed to force it to take some vitamin shots and inhale some fast food to at least keep some energy in the body, but no real and proper meals. So though the food here was surprisingly decent, for someone not knowing what to expect in a high-class brothel, it was consumed faster than someone taking time to enjoy it.


    ¡°Well-¡± Janik was done eating a bit after Sam, but he still started the conversation before his plate was empty. ¡°-I assume you¡¯re tired or at least want to rest. I¡¯ve been following you for a few days now and... energy drinks, coffee and raw will can only push me so far. I gotta check up on a few people and... I want to sleep.¡±


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Sam had nothing, Janik had followed the request to keep an eye on him, luckily that was an easier task than feared, and he deserved the day.


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s fine. I¡¯ll take a calm day, perhaps have some fun with Elara.¡± Mentioning her name he gave her a scritch perched on his shoulder.


    Janik sounded almost relieved like he didn¡¯t expect Sam to take a calm day. But suddenly his relieved expression changed to curiosity.


    ¡°On that topic, what did you get for the quest thing? Last time you got something really good for you.¡±


    Considering this made Sam realise that the quest window wasn¡¯t there anymore, active quests tended to remain at the corner of his view, but now it was just gone. Thinking about it opened up an empty quest window, but as his confusion about the empty window took over, another window opened. This one was a list of completed things, the several Dungeon Clear runs were listed in there with confirmations and rewards. At the very top was the Rental quest listed as completed.


    ¡°...it seems the fucker completed the quest for me...¡± Sam commented.


    Looking into the list of his abilities he instantly found the new addition.


    [ Silent Killer


    The first attack against an unaware target does 50% more damage. ]


    ¡°Oh.¡± Sam reacted to finding it. He was surprisingly satisfied with it. The Ascendant quest mentioned that it would be tailored to his playstyle and it was! Given that he was sneaking around and attacking from stealth, this would aid him with damage a bit. ¡°I got an ability that lets me do 50% more damage on the first attack against unaware targets.¡± Sam smiled at Janik.


    ¡°That¡¯s great for you!¡± Janik replied to his surprise, seemed like he exclaimed that a bit louder than intended. He recomposed himself to going back to speaking in his slightly lower-than-normal conversation volume. ¡°We need to find the limits of that later.¡± Like always, he looked honestly happy for Sam.


    They talked for a short while before they left the establishment. Stopping at the security checkpoint, giving their name the guards found their ID in a stack on their side. Confirming that this was indeed them, they left into a back room and came back with all their stuff. Using a few minutes to put things back on, Sam getting a few looks as he was placing his collection of weapons back on his body, they left for outside.


    It was still morning, but based on Janik¡¯s explanation and checking the date and time, about two days had passed since they intended to go to bed at the cottage. Janik had commented that the money they paid there was lost, there were no refunds, after all. As they split up for the day, Janik going for whatever he was going for, Sam decided to spend some time with Elara, she had been strongly neglected since she hatched. He didn¡¯t feel entirely good about that.


    ¡°So, what do you want to do?¡± He asked his serpentine companion, not knowing how to spend time with a snake, less so with a sapient one.


    ¡°I am fine just being with you, Master.¡± She smiled back, which was still a surprisingly strange thing to see; a snake smiling. She had enough humanity in her face for it to work but it was still special.


    ¡°That sounds boring, is there anything you¡¯d like to do for fun? Make the day special or something?¡± Sam wanted her to have some fun, not just being around him and doing as he said all the time. Though she was a snake her human intellect must have some need for stimuli, right?


    ¡°I enjoy hunting and exploring.¡± She smiled. ¡°Like I think most like, new experiences, finding new places or just learning interesting things.¡± She added, stating surprisingly vague things mixed into her list.


    Sam considered this for a moment, taking a look at her Statistics window,


    [ STR 0


    DEX 3


    VIT 12


    SPT 0.


    HP: 40 / 40


    [ Venom 1 ] ]


    ¡°Oh, I have an idea.¡± Sam smiled as he held his hand towards her to slither over to. She did so but left most of her body on his shoulder, just having enough of a supporting position in his hand to face him properly as they spoke. ¡°What if we go into the starter Dungeon? They do very little damage, and I doubt they can resist your Venom. Should you take some hits I¡¯ll just help you out, and if you manage to bite them and hide I think it¡¯s all fine.¡±


    He smiled at his idea, he remembered that they only did... less than 5 damage, he didn¡¯t remember exactly but she had more health than he did, so even without armour she should be able to take some hits.


    Elara¡¯s expression grew, she became incredibly happy and seemed to love that idea. The tip of her tail started flailing back and forth almost like a wagging puppy as her smile widened to the point of closing her eyes a little.


    ¡°I¡¯d like that. I¡¯d like that a lot.¡± Her voice only supported her expression.


    Sam felt good about this choice, she could get hurt, yes, but nothing major. With 40 HP, and if he remembered correctly that they did less than 5 damage, assuming 5 damage she could take 7 hits before he started panicking. He didn¡¯t intend for it to go that far anyway, and given that she was a snake she¡¯d be naturally skilled at hiding and sneaking. It was going to be interesting seeing her hunt and stalk as well. Based on the math for her Venom, if their Vitality was too low they would struggle to pass the check if they got one at all.


    Letting her go back to her perch on his shoulder she seemed happy the whole walk to the queue of entering the starting dungeon. Being back now with much more experience he could tell that most in there were newbies, much like he was only a few days ago. But he could also see some that looked better geared than he was, probably others who were going to test something, it was the best live-testing place, after all. Having gotten used to having a companion he started seeing them elsewhere. One man had a cat, a woman had a bird perched on her shoulder, and one young man even had a kobold with a spear following him around. Sam got the feeling that this was something that his father once said; once you get a new car you start seeing that car everywhere. He didn¡¯t properly understand it when he was younger but... it made a lot of sense, it wasn¡¯t that there were more of it, you just recognized it more.


    Though companions were rare, not to mention that he didn¡¯t know if all of these creatures were companions, he had heard of Beastmaster classes where your skills were not focused on personal power, but on getting and training monsters to fight for you, so some of these might be something like that.


    It was his turn all of a sudden, he was too busy looking around at the others to properly pay attention, though once he snapped back to reality he did as he had done many times before. Stepping in and entering the portal felt second nature by now.


    They found themselves in a familiar location, an almost manufactured dungeon with torches lighting up the place. It wasn¡¯t that long since he was in here, farming the place again and again to get enough mana potions to hatch Elara, but now he was here again.


    Stepping in the familiar window popped up.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Goblin chief. 0/1


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Goblins: 0/10


    Kobolds: 0/5


    Rewards:


    10 xp


    1x Random low-level crafting material


    Chance (50%): E-tier weapon or armour.


    Bonus rewards for optional step:


    5 xp


    Random Box - X. ]


    He couldn¡¯t stop himself from letting out a single chuckle. The 55xp from clearing the dungeon completely was so amazing back then. Now, with his current XP, he would need to run this dungeon over 300 times to gain a level, progress was positive but put things in perspective.


    ¡°Well, I suppose it¡¯s up to you, then.¡± Sam smiled as he crouched, letting Elara slither down his arm onto the stone floor. ¡°I¡¯ll be just around the corner, hiding, you just do your thing.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Master.¡± She smiled as she slithered down on the floor.


    They spent a moment talking tactics, or rather when he would break in, since he could see her HP that wasn¡¯t a problem. And once they, or rather once he felt satisfied, she slithered ahead as he started sneaking behind her.

 Ch.031 - Elaras outing

    Elara slithered ahead, her smile was still somewhat present but it was muted in favour of her being focused on the task ahead. Sam was halfway uncertain as she had not done anything like this before, but she also felt fine about it with the relative safety and the fact that she had her instincts.


    Entering the first room there was a single Goblin in there, he had no weapons and was only armed with claws and teeth. He looked busy with... something, letting Elara silently sneak up on him. Sam was hidden around a corner, weapons at the ready, his boosted Stealth should keep him securely hidden but with his current gear, even with critical hits, he was untouchable. Having zero considerations about himself he kept a watchful eye on his companion.


    She snuck up and bit the Goblin in his leg. Shrieking from both being startled and the pain, he found himself landing a step away from her.


    [ The target¡¯s Vitality is too low to save against [ Venom 1 ]! ]


    This message made Sam smile, meaning he¡¯d die in a few seconds, and as long as Elara wouldn¡¯t be hit too much, she¡¯d be fine.


    As soon as the Goblin jumped, she slithered away, hiding in some rubble in the corner. The Goblin casually threw a broken bone at her, missing by a mile, and seemed more interested in scratching at the small piercing wounds on his leg that had a few droplets of electric blue-coloured fluid in it.


    Seconds went by, and he was looking worse and worse. Reacting as if he had been punched every few seconds, it seemed that the poison did its thing, again and again, over and over. The Goblin started looking panicked, biting at the wounds in his leg, seeming like he was trying to remove the thing that went in there, but it was too late. It only took a few seconds before he fell over and stopped breathing.


    [ Experience gained: +2. ]


    Elara looked back at Sam with huge excited eyes, she didn¡¯t say anything vocally but her expression screamed ¡®I did it!¡¯. Sam couldn¡¯t help but get infected by her joy, noticing a strange proud smile growing on his lips.


    Taking the excitement she slithered into the hallway and went to the next room. This room had two Goblins in it, which put Sam more on guard than the solo target. Elara had slithered ahead and ended up behind some debris close to them. She waited for quite a while before one of them said something and slapped the other. As the slap connected she bit the slap-recipient before hiding again.


    It didn¡¯t seem like they noticed her. Sam knew her fangs were very slender so it might just be that the Goblin didn¡¯t properly notice.


    [ The target¡¯s Vitality is too low to save against [ Venom 1 ]! ]


    Again Sam had to smile, this was going well for now, it didn¡¯t take long for the Goblin to succumb to her Venom, and as the other one started panicking she delivered an injection to his leg. However, this time he noticed and started flailing at her. She was quite low to the ground, being a snake, so she didn¡¯t have a huge problem dodging the attacks, he was getting weaker by the second and Sam was ready to spring to action if needed.


    His aid was not needed and though she was close this time to getting hit, she avoided everything until the Goblin died like the others.


    [ Experience gained: +4. ]


    Stopping himself in letting out a chuckle, he found it interesting just how low the XP was in this dungeon. With his current gear even Critical hits didn¡¯t pose a threat to him, so he could probably clear it in a few minutes. But, he kept a watchful eye over the fights as they went on.


    Every fight happened in the same way, the solo targets were easily taken out and in the case where they saw her, she just had to run about. In the group rooms, it was a bit different, the Kobolds were more adept at noticing her, throwing spears after her, though one of them hit she only took the 5 damage. This had Sam wondering if the whole thing should be called off, but at the same time, she looked so happy; that he couldn¡¯t take it from her in the end.


    It didn¡¯t take long for them to find themselves in the last hallway before the boss room. By the Questlog¡¯s account, there should be a boss, two Goblins and a Kobold in there.


    Sam called Elara over to him, he wanted to talk to her before the final room.


    ¡°Elara-¡± he started once she got in whisper range. ¡°The next room is a bit different, there¡¯s going to be 4 enemies, one of which is stronger than the others. Not to mention that you¡¯re out of Venom for today, no?¡±


    It was a loaded question, she only had 12 doses per day at her current Vitality, and he could see the information window pinned to his HUD listing [ Venom 1 - 0 / 12 ].


    She almost looked like she was looking for a way out of it, a way she could continue doing what she was doing, her excitement was coming down and her happiness was dwindling. Sam knew she would only do a single damage per bite without her Venom.


    ¡°I... I understand, Master.¡± She looked a bit sad as the sparkle faded in her eyes as she looked to the stone floor.


    ¡°We can go again later if you want, I can take out the first few targets so you can try the boss room on your own.¡± Sam smiled. This was not an issue for him and though not today, it would let her have some more fun later.


    This brought her smile and sparkling expression back, she seemed fine with that plan.


    ¡°Now, let¡¯s clean up the rest of them and go rest for today.¡± He smiled back at her as he stopped hiding, with his current arsenal and skill the final room wouldn¡¯t be an issue.


    [ Conditions met; Ascendant will be transported. ]


    ¡°No, wait!¡± Panic spread across his face, he reached out for Elara as the white warm light enveloped him like last time. His objection didn¡¯t change anything and he soon found himself elsewhere.


    As the transport light faded another light blinded him, he found himself on a sunny beach with an open ocean as far as he could see, all the way to the horizon. Turning around he saw the beach he stood on before he saw the palm trees leading into a jungle. In the distance above the canopy was what looked like a mountain, perhaps a dormant volcano, it was covered in plant life. Birds were flying above him and there was a surprisingly gentle breeze across the sands. A strange thing was that even in this sun and in what looked like a tropical paradise, he didn¡¯t feel the need to dress lighter.


    ¡°What... the fuck...¡± He commented to no one in particular. He didn¡¯t expect, though he hoped for, a response. ¡°Elara?!¡± He turned around, looking for his companion, his voice breaking as he shouted her name. Stepping in towards the forest line where the sand ended, he tried again more urgently. ¡°Elara?!¡±


    There was no response.


    Looking at his HUD he saw that her information was greyed out, it listed the same numbers as he saw in the dungeon, but still greyed out like it was disabled and frozen. Taking out his phone he sighed when there was no coverage, nor any WIFI nearby.


    He spent a few minutes panicking, trying to get any semblance of control. He was still wearing all his clothing and weapons, he was armed and good to fight. But he had no idea where he was, he had not gotten any quests or System Prompts, he was just... here...


    Spending some time on the beach, mainly trying to decide or figure out what to do, he found himself sitting on a beached log as the sun was setting surprisingly fast. His mind had just wandered during this time, not processing anything good or practical, just randomly wandering and thinking of things. Was Elara safe? Was she still in the Dungeon alone? Would Janik find out or would he think that Sam abandoned him? Would Janik find and help Elara? What would he do for food or water... if he was going to be here a while this would be critical...


    By the time he properly snapped out of his spiralling train of thought, rethinking the same questions and mental images again and again, the sun had entirely set in favour of the moons having come out. His mind needed a double take as he finally looked out, there were indeed two moons, one looking smaller, or further away than the other. There were different crater patterns in them but both were full and lit up the beach surprisingly well. He could probably read in this light without much effort.


    Hearing the sound of something coming his way on urgent feet he became worried. His worrying train of thought, and consideration of the two moons, derailed entirely as his paranoia took full control. In a moment he found himself on his feet facing the forest, he couldn¡¯t see anything through the solid shadow that the canopy created. Pulling out his full arsenal he soon felt well equipped and ready. He still needed four Psyhands for the Moonblade, the new dagger joined the floating weaponry with the Vampiric blade, four daggers from the bandits and 19 cheap daggers for a total of 17 floating weapons. Something in his mind felt like being extra safe so without planning for it he pulled two more cheap daggers from his normal hands.


    He moved the Psyhand weapons closer to the trees, though the moonlight was quite bright, they would be surprisingly well hidden over there, besides entering the jungle itself there was nowhere for him to hide, and he wasn¡¯t too keen on doing that.


    The sounds came closer, it sounded like a collection of footsteps, hurried and rushed, not trying to be stealthy. It didn''t take long before a group of four men came out onto the beach, one of the group looked smaller and more slender than the others, he didn¡¯t look scared just submissive to the others. The other three looked gruff and surprisingly manly, unkempt beards from probably living in the woods for a while, wearing furs or leather attires. A man with two swords on his hips and short hair followed the smaller man. Behind him was a man with a ponytail and a bow, a quiver of arrows over his shoulder was copied by another one on his left hip. The last man didn¡¯t seem to have any weaponry but was also the most buff of the group.


    ¡°Holy shit, you¡¯re right! There was a newcomer here.¡± The buff man commented, sounding almost surprised.


    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t lie to you, boss. He¡¯s been here for hours.¡± The smaller man confirmed with a happy smile of the sort that a commoner might have towards a king or man in power.


    The muscleman didn¡¯t comment or reply to the smaller man but rather stepped closer to Sam. ¡°The question is, who is the newcomer?¡± His question was worded almost like he was speaking with the smaller man, but staring straight at Sam it was clear as day that it was a question for him.


    ¡°I¡¯m... lost.¡± Sam commented honestly, still on guard. He chose not to share any details for now, keeping the Psyhand armament ready to go, these men looked shady, to say the least. The men all wore armour, Sam had no idea what Defense values they had, nor what powers, offensive abilities, damage rating on their weapons nor their Health.


    He had underestimated the value of seeing opponents¡¯ Health values.


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s fine, we all started like that.¡± The man replied in a surprisingly condescending tone, almost the same tone as if he had replied to Sam claiming that it was dark out at night.


    ¡°What is this place?¡± Sam fished for information, still holding his daggers in hand as well as his more than ready main method of attack behind them.


    ¡°Well, this place is your new home.¡± The muscle man commented. He had walked closer to Sam than the others were, but he had stopped a few steps away.


    Sam imagined that this was within his attack range, it felt like a logical thing to do.


    ¡°Naturally-¡± He continued in the same condescending tone. ¡°You get to choose if you join us willingly, or as a corpse.¡±


    Sam had to give him credit for at least being surprisingly honest about things.


    ¡°I... prefer neither. Just... leave me alone, please.¡±


    The man burst out laughing, turning to his allies and repeating what Sam said in a mocking tone. ¡°Leave me alone, please.¡± Putting an extra fake voice to the ¡®please¡¯ word he considered Sam close to worthless.


    His posse joined him in laughing.


    ¡°Sooo... am I right in assuming that you¡¯re killers, then.?¡± Sam asked, still doing his best to sound meek and weak... Not something hard to pretend as he still felt like it.


    Turning back to Sam the muscleman¡¯s laughter ended abruptly. ¡°The fuck do you think? Join us or die, fucking shit. Your scrawny ass body is probably best to just feed the fucking Furs with-¡± He turned to the others with a huge smile. ¡°Perhaps we¡¯ll have him fight them, see how he does?¡± Turning back to Sam he kept his smile as he looked across his body. ¡°Your weapons are shit, but you seem decently geared, that armour looks pretty nice.¡±


    Sam wondered what the best choice was, the only thing he couldn¡¯t risk was to get knocked out or blinded. If he was tied up he would be fine, likewise if he was just led through the forest. At the same time if he just attacked them he could run into the forest and hide, out in the open was the worst way for him to fight... But with the little value he had and the fact that the leader of the group looked like a close combatant without weapons, he was probably someone using his body as a weapon. Sam couldn¡¯t risk it... The only bonus he could consider was that the men didn¡¯t seem to wear much in the sense of armour, wanting his, was a good hint in addition to their clothing looking more like clothing than defence.


    Janik had something he mentioned during their training, defense through decisive offense.


    The main target was the leader, he pulled back all his weapons aiming for him since Sam didn¡¯t need to look at his weapons to hit anything, he could ¡®feel¡¯ with the Psyhands, after all, he pulled them all in towards his back.


    [ Silent Killer activated. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    One of the cheap daggers missed its mark, but Sam was glad to see that every other blade in his incoming chaos of blades managed to slice into his back before stopping around Sam, two of which even delivered critical hits, doing a tremendous amount of damage. Or at least, he assumed they did a tremendous amount of damage based on the man¡¯s reaction. Sam had no way to confirm his actual Defence rating but the man lost a significant amount of blood in that one move. He was also glad to see that Silent Killer activated on a target unaware of the attack, not necessarily having to be unaware of Sam himself.


    ¡°Jesus fuckign Christ!¡± The man with the two swords shouted out as he pulled his swords, the Archer pulled an arrow and the small man tripped in the sand trying to run away.


    The leader of the group couldn¡¯t do much other than let out a muffled grunt of pain, his eyes were wide and in shock, not surprising as 16 unexpected blades just introduced themselves to his body.


    Sam couldn¡¯t lose his momentum, they were all in a nice line from each other, but he needed to take out the leader first. All the blades had occupied the space between Sam and the boss, and in a sudden movement, they all came flying past Sam¡¯s main target once again.


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    Though two blades missed, one being the new Shadow Fang, one landed a Critical hit. The damage again looked substantial and whatever defenses the man had wasn¡¯t enough as he was cut into shreds. The daggers on their own weren¡¯t enough to cut any limb of his body, but the Scimitar took with it one of his arms, the rest of his body was barely hanging on through all the deep cuts as the man let out a single coughing grunt before he fell backwards.


    The Archer let an arrow loose towards Sam, but to Sam¡¯s happiness, it missed by a lot. He assumed the sudden arrival of all the flying weapons and their boss¡¯ body losing a staggering amount of blood in only a few seconds was more than enough to set the fear in them.


    Not wanting to gamble, Sam focused on one target at a time. The swordsman seemed to use a similar fighting style to Janik and attacked the incoming swarm of sharp edges, successfully parrying the Moon blade and Shadow Fang, his two most damaging weapons.


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    Though there were two parries and two misses, everything else landed as they whipped past the swordsman. He was still standing strong and had realised what was going on, dashing for Sam with both swords in hand.


    Sam pulled all the weapons back, aiming for the swordsman who was just a little bit faster. Trying to protect himself with his two daggers Sam realised just how much skill he was lacking as he might as well not have tried to defend, one sword landed and the split second after he could feel a kind of twisting jerk to the side as if some invisible hand twitched him like a chess piece.


    [ Armour, Defence 40 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ Evasion has negated a hit. ]


    [ HP: 31 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€? ]


    Sam had closed his eyes briefly as the swords connected, though the sharp pain of being cut by a blade forced him to open them again he felt very much alive, the HUD and information windows displaying that he took a total of 4 damage per hit.


    The first thing he thought of was that the man did 44 damage per hit... a Critical hit would kill him instantly, the second thing was that he was completely fine just now, the evasion had triggered and saved him!


    He couldn¡¯t hold back a smile as the swordsman looked at him in the eyes with nothing but horror in his own. All incoming weapons except the Moon Blade landed true across the man¡¯s back, neck, head and sides as they all sliced at him before ending up in the air beside Sam. Their proximity had Sam covered in blood a second before an arrow landed in his shoulder.


    [ Armour, Defence 40 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 27 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€?? ]


    The adrenaline dulled the pain but it was very much still present, he felt surprisingly unfamiliar with this kind of pain. Between the Scout and Archer, it was clear which one was a threat, the Scout just scampered to his legs and hightailed it towards the jungle, but Sam couldn¡¯t let him return and call for reinforcements. The Ranger was booking another arrow so the next target was clear.


    Feeling surprisingly cold in his analysis and current situation, Sam sent everything forward.


    Although there were no critical hits, nor any chance activations, every single blade landed true and cut the man down mid-step. Like the switch in his brain flipped off he just fell forward mid-step and landed in the sand.


    The Ranger had nocked an arrow, but the odd thing was that the tip of this one was glowing oddly as he let it fly. Having no idea what this was he tried his best to dodge it, but his lacking skills and instincts didn¡¯t let that happen. And sadly the Evasion ability on his armour didn¡¯t activate either.


    [ Armour, Defence 40 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 19 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€¨€??? ]


    [ Failed to resist the effects of [Sleep Arrow]. ]


    ¡°Fuck...¡± Sam muttered before he felt his eyes grow heavy. He had initially wanted to question the Ranger about things, but in the reactionary panic move, he sent everything he had at him, desperately even throwing the two daggers he held in hand.


    Sam didn¡¯t get a chance to see what was going on, well before anything hit his eyes closed themselves and the last thing he felt was the sense of falling.

 Ch.032 - "Sleep"

    Sam¡¯s eyes opened slowly, he felt horrible, like the worst hangover he could consider without having been drunk in his life. He needed several long seconds for his mind to clear, and he was happy to realise that it cleared up surprisingly well. He could hear the ocean, he could feel the sand and he could see that he was still on the beach.


    The moons had moved quite a lot across the sky but it seemed like nothing had changed around him. The fact that he was still here and that he was alive, made it seem like his last-ditch effort in desperation had worked. Forcing himself to his feet as the grogginess faded he could confirm that it worked, the body of the ranger had 13 of the blades lodged in his body, all the named weapons being among them.


    [ Experience gained: +25 000. ]


    [ Levelup +1! ]


    [ XP to lv.14: 7225 / 40960 ¨€¨€???????? ]


    His eyes widened as he finally got a chance to look at the information windows in the side of his view, 25 000 XP... for four targets. Checking the log it seemed that the muscleman gave him 10k, and the others gave him 5k. Janik did say that PvP was lucrative in many ways, but this was... a bit much. A brief thought of how much XP Sam was worth aside, he spent some moments getting all his stuff together and going through what the others had.


    While going through the stuff, he wondered if it was smartest to level up right away, it would give him a higher weight limit if he went for Spirit, but it wouldn¡¯t give him more hands or weapons just yet. Since the level-up healing didn¡¯t happen until he confirmed levelling up, it felt like a better idea to just keep it for now, until he had more points to use or if he suddenly needed healing.


    The men weren¡¯t that well geared, the swordsman had two 10-damage swords, but the amount of hands he would need on them due to weight, didn¡¯t make it worthwhile. The ranger had a bow, also doing 10 damage and a bunch of arrows. The scout had a single dagger and the boss had no weapons. All of them had armour with a Defence rating of 3, which was not much at all. They had no potions or other interesting gear. In the end, he didn¡¯t care for most of what they had, he only took the Scout¡¯s dagger which was much like his cheap blades.


    Now having a few choices, he wondered what he should do. He had in a way just slept due to the Sleep Arrow, but it didn¡¯t feel like he had slept at all, and since it was quite late, his phone didn¡¯t have coverage but the clock confirmed that it was in the early AM¡¯s before it died due to low battery. He needed to get a new one, one of the Arcane Crystal ones would be a good idea, they last for quite some time before needing to be charged, and could even be charged by other Aether Crystals. But for now, he was left only with the Flashlight he borrowed from Janik not long ago. It did work on Aether Crystals, so it would light for many, many hours before needing a swap or recharge.


    But, using a flashlight would show anyone or anything around where he was, and though he was again armed, he didn¡¯t know where he was or what to do. He set off into the jungle, aiming for the mountain, if nothing else he might be able to find somewhere to sleep, and tomorrow he could get a lay of the land... maybe.


    Walking through the pitch-black darkness of the practically moonless night, though the moons cast plenty of light, due to the trees, foliage and canopies, there was not much of it reaching the forest floor. Though he was on guard as much as he could be, his mind wandered, wondering why he was here, where ¡®here¡¯ even was and what the point of this place was. The Tower System hadn¡¯t given him any quests or information, when he thought about where he was there were no information prompts. The men looked like they had been here a while, except perhaps the scout, or perhaps it was just his lower rank that made it seem different. They all looked somewhat rugged from time in the sun, so it might have been something like that. But if there were bandits, to call them something, on the island, they had to come from somewhere, right? He needed to find someone and question them, he needed to know more.


    Almost tripping every few steps, he took his time to avoid faceplanting in the unknown. This made for a very, very slow progress. The sun was rising well before he had made it to the mountain, but the bonus of that was light! He could see where he was going as time went, allowing him to get himself to the base of the mountain. He assumed that it had been 5 hours since the arrow hit him based on the passive self-healing having healed 5 HP. Janik and the system information confirmed that a passive 1HP/hr healing was standard, which was a bit sucky for higher-health Players, but at least it was something. It also gave him a vague control over what time it was.


    Walking around some thick trees, having already started to vaguely go uphill he suddenly overheard a familiar though not understandable chatter. Staring into the face of two goblins he had a moment of inner crisis; he had no idea what power level these fuckers were on, being slightly larger than he was used to, they carried simple spears with bone tips. Before Sam could prepare himself one of them threw his spear, having it land in his gut.


    [ Armour, Defence 40 has negated the damage. ]


    This gave Sam a huge sense of relief as he pulled his weapons from their various sheaths, mentally dividing them between the targets. As he was about to attack the other Goblin had stepped in and delivered a powerful thrust. Sam tried to dodge but he was exhausted and since the damage was negated before, there wasn¡¯t a huge sense of urgency.


    [ Armour, Defence 40 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 13 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€???? ]


    Sam¡¯s face pulled into fear, 11 damage went through his Defense rating of 40, and this was a goblin. This was the same level of the Beastfolk Chieftains that Janik told him to stay away from, a critical hit would kill him instantly.


    In panic, he sent all his weapons against the primary target, which was the Goblin with a weapon. He didn¡¯t know how much damage they could do unarmed, but it felt like the logical choice. Though none of the named weapons activated their ability, it seemed that the sheer damage he could throw out was enough to kill him in one blow.


    Turning around and running, he felt the need to create some distance between them, he couldn¡¯t risk a critical hit or more of those spear attacks. He pulled out and consumed the D-rank potion, instantly healing 50% of his health and bumping it up to 30 again! He only got a few seconds of running before he looked back to the Goblin jumping at him, grabbing him and landing a powerful bite on his shoulder.


    [ Armour, Defence 40 has lowered the damage. Critical hit! ]


    [ HP: 2 / 35 ??????? ]


    His health bar was gone, the sickening red text hinting his critically low health was back which only heightened his fear. Having plenty of control to not attack himself as he swung the Psyhands around, he brought everything down on the Goblin.


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    Even without the critical hits, it would have been enough, but the Goblin fell off him like a sack of potatoes, rolling a few times in the weak downhill before a root stopped him.


    [ Experience gained: +600. ]


    In a panic, he drank the only potion he had available, which was an E-rank health potion. It only gave him 3 health bringing it up to a total of 5.


    [ HP: 5 / 35 ¨€????? ]


    It was... better, the text was still red and threatening and Sam felt fragile, instinctively starting to sneak he needed to find shelter, somewhere to rest, the Goblins probably had some cores but he didn¡¯t feel comfortable considering that now. He continued towards the mountain, double-checking every corner, every boulder, every tree. Hunger had become a problem, as had thirst, his main problem was exhaustion which was only made worse due to the lack of sustenance. The lack of sustenance to his brain also made him forget that he had a level-up he could activate to gain full health.


    His steps grew heavier and heavier, taking more and more effort, until the next step didn¡¯t have enough energy to bring his legs with him, passing out on the way to the ground he felt a sharp blow to his head before blacking out.


    Waking up with a sudden jolt his eyes were accosted by the strong sun and he found himself quite tied up. Looking around he saw that he was not only tied up but caged in a quite sturdy wooden cage made of wide pieces of tree-trunks. Outside the cage, he could see what looked like a native camp. People he would identify as modern humans with varying levels of gear and clothing walked around. There were also a few beastfolk, all of them Kobolds, walking around with chains attached to their metal collars, doing menial labour as some of the people were angrily ordering them around. If one of the beastfolk didn¡¯t behave as the people wanted, they were kicked, hit, had their chains sharply yanked or worse.


    ¡°Oh, you woke up.¡± A male voice commented, looking towards it Sam could see a man wearing his Armour. A second look around gave him a different view, he was not the only person in the cage, there were two other men, a woman and a kobold, all tied up and naked.


    He wasn¡¯t fond of this situation, but he could see the logic, it was somewhat hard to hide things without anywhere to hide them. Checking the man again Sam could see that he had dreadlocks reaching his mid-back, it was held back by a vine, root or some plant-thing used as a rope. He was sun-tanned and looked quite strong, Sam was also annoyed to see that the man had all of his named gear, the sword, both daggers, his armour and rings, and even his shoes seemed to fit him.


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    The only positive thing was that his HP had increased.


    [ HP: 27 / 35 ¨€????? ]


    22 hours had passed since he fought the Goblins, he still felt destroyed but at least he had gotten some sleep.


    ¡°W... water...¡± He managed to request through parched lips.


    ¡°Oh, yeah, sure.¡± The man smiled at him as he walked over to a barrel of sorts, plunged a bucket in it and brought a ladle. Sitting down on a stump acting as a stool he started feeding water to Sam in a surprisingly nice manner, at the moment Sam didn¡¯t care for his motivations and just drank everything.


    Feeling incredibly satisfied a moment later, though still hungry and... not happy about the situation, at least he got some water which calmed down his mind considerably.


    ¡°So, let¡¯s start with some questions.¡± The man started as he put the bucket and ladle away. ¡°You were geared to the teeth, no Class I have seen needs this many weapons, you a throwing class?¡±


    Sam processed this for a moment, he remembered the clerk at TAC mentioning that his class wasn¡¯t registered before, so it would make sense for them to not know. It was also a super dumb idea to let them know that even tied up, he could do almost whatever he wanted within reach. Though he wanted to use his weapons and attack the man, with Sam¡¯s armour on the man he had close to zero chance of damaging him. He could probably get free, but there was no good way to get his stuff back. Or rather he could probably get his weapons, but telekinetically yanking the armour, rings and shoes of someone is... harder.


    Right now he needed to find out what to do, when to strike. If nothing else he knew where all his important gear was, it was... something.


    ¡°No answer, that figures.¡± The man nodded as if he expected it. ¡°Well, you had some really nice stuff, so thank you for that.¡± he smiled widely almost as if it was an actual gift.


    Leaning in closer to the cage his smile faded for a more serious, accusing expression. ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you¡¯re the one that killed our guys at the beach east of here? They were shredded, and, well, you had 23 blades on you.¡±


    Sam chose to not answer, he knew that nothing he could say would make the situation better.


    ¡°Where is this? Why are we... you... here?¡± He opted to ask his questions instead of answering.


    ¡°Nice try, but no, you don¡¯t get to ask questions. Answer me and I¡¯ll answer you.¡±


    Sam considered it and let out a sigh. He¡¯d have to try and lie at least a little...


    ¡°I¡¯m a Ranger, but I focus on throwing things instead of bows or whatnot, I¡¯m also training in melee as a backup.¡± Though one could argue that it was a blatant lie, it also wasn¡¯t; he was a ranged kind of class, and he did focus on throwing and ranged attacks. The melee is something he had thought of recently as a backup... it¡¯s never dumb to at least have a tiny bit of backup just in case.


    ¡°Oh, yeah, that kind of checks out. I have met those kinds of Rangers before, a bit expensive but it works better for weaker frames which... I suppose suits you well.¡± He had a small smile at the sting he made at Sam¡¯s weak frame.


    Sam... had to agree on that one. His strength was sub-par to just other people in his age group, so this was nothing new being compared to other Players. Though he didn¡¯t reply, just stared back at his captor.


    ¡°Well, it doesn''t matter, if you killed them they deserved it from a scrub like you. Based on your gear you¡¯re at least somewhat stealth-focused, so you probably snuck up on them, you sneaky bastard, you.¡± He scrunched his face almost like he was complimenting a child or puppy, the condensing tone was palpable.


    ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you can be persuaded to work for us? We have a strange lack of a decent ranger after someone, you know, shredded him.¡±


    Sam didn¡¯t reply, he couldn¡¯t think of anything besides ways he could try to get his stuff back. The only method of attack he had right now was his Force Pulse, the problem there was that this was a non-damage ability, so even forcing all his power into a single pulse into someone''s eye wouldn¡¯t destroy it, it would cause considerable pain and most likely some vision problems, but nothing permanent. He needed some tools, weapons or something.


    ¡°I thought as much.¡± The man sighed as he got back on his feet, looking surprisingly saddened before leaving the people in the cage alone.


    ¡°Don¡¯t piss him off, man.¡± One of the two men in the cage commented in a tone almost making it sound like a hushed order.


    ¡°And you are...?¡± Sam asked through his reply.


    ¡°I¡¯m captured like you, the fuckers are going to do horrible things to us... The last woman in here didn¡¯t want to... submit... to him.¡± The tone of his words hinted strongly that this was intimate. ¡°So he sent her to fight some beastfolk... Naked and unarmed she had no chance.¡±


    Sam somewhat expected something like that, they seemed like the kind. The only chance he had was to fight his way out. But without weapons or armour that was a problem, to say the least. Though he had possibly three allies in here.


    ¡°What if we make a break for it?¡± Sam whispered to them, and as he did they all grimaced at him like he asked them to eat their own feet.


    ¡°Are you insane? They¡¯ll kill us, torture us or worse.¡± The woman chimed in, she sounded almost panicked in her voice.


    ¡°If they are going to kill us, or worse anyway, shouldn¡¯t we try?¡± Sam pleaded, if the outcome was the same, death in some way, why not try for the optimal outcome?


    ¡°Guards! Guards!¡± The last man shouted out in a panicked voice. Sam tried to shush him but he could see the broken mind in his eyes.


    It didn¡¯t take more than a few seconds before several men came rushing over. The panicked man in the cage continued with his panicked expression. ¡°He¡¯s planning to escape, he plans to do something!¡± Nodding frantically at Sam.


    ¡°Well, we can¡¯t have that.¡± One of the guards commented with a twisted smile, nodding the others to the cage they opened it and took the man out.


    Sam was a bit surprised as he halfway expected to be the target of whatever they were planning.


    He was untied as the first man to speak put a hand on his shoulder. ¡°You did good to warn us.¡±


    The man¡¯s eyes lit up getting the compliment.


    ¡°But what did I say about telling us shit we already knew?¡± The bandit asked in an annoyed tone.


    ¡°Wh.. what? You.. you didn¡¯t tell me an-¡± The naked man tried to defend himself but his voice was halted as the bandit thrust a dagger through his throat before pulling it out. Letting him fall to the ground and bleed out as his body twitched.


    They locked up the door to the cage again. Sam got a vague look at it, it seemed to be a latch system you could only reach from the outside. Not too different to what you¡¯d have on a dog cage, but the main difference was that the door was covered by a plate so there was no way to reach it. They did... something extra to it, probably a pin or something to make it more solid.


    That was going to be his way out.


    The bandits laughed as they left, leaving the corpse there on display for the people in the cage. Sam could tell this worked on the two others. Their eyes stopped looking at anything in particular, and their whole selves metaphorically disappeared into a thousand-yard stare.


    Since he was just laying there he took the time to touch and feel around the cage properly, his Psyhands were invisible, after all. He touched around the cage door a lot and after a few minutes confirmed what he initially thought, there was a simple latch system kept ¡®locked¡¯ by a wooden pin. If what he felt was correct then he could open it in a few seconds. He had also used some time to loosen the knots on his ropes, not enough that they¡¯d drop off just yet, but enough to confirm that they were at least loosening. The bandits were also somewhat dumb, there were simple weapons all around the place, within range of his extended Area. He just needed to wait for nightfall.


    ¡°Hey, fuckers!¡± The voice of the man who was wearing all of Sam¡¯s gear came close. ¡°I¡¯m bored and think it¡¯s time to let you guys have some fun.¡± He had a twisted smile as he had drawn the Moon Blade and was resting it on his shoulder.


    ¡°Get them out, this is going to be entertaining.¡± He nodded his command at some other bandits who did as told.

 Ch.033 - Cave

    The three remaining prisoners were pulled out of the cage, Sam had to tighten the knots again to not give things away stealthily, but this seemed to work fine. The corpse of the man who was killed earlier was also carried away by two other men.


    Their legs were untied, but their hands were left restrained as they were forcefully led, pushed and punched over to what looked like a pit in the ground which had a makeshift palisade-like fence made around it. It wasn¡¯t hard to guess what would happen in there, and there was no way Sam could let that happen.


    Looking around he formulated a simple plan, the man with all his gear was within his Area, and he was walking very contently, not expecting to be attacked. Manifesting 10 of his hands, leaving 6 Energy to spare, he aimed and placed one Psyhand on each eye, two on the hand holding the Moon Blade and two on his crotch. Using the remaining 6 Energy he triggered Force Pulse on all of them at the same time. By the time he reacted to ¡®something¡¯ touching his body, it was too late.


    The man let out a groan of pain as his hands went to cup his eyes and crotch at the same time, the extra force put into the hand holding the Moon Blade forced him to drop it in the motion. Manifesting the rest of his hands he reached to the man and stole back the things he could, grasping the Moon Blade that now fell on the ground, as well as the two named daggers; the Shadow Fang and Vampiric Blade. He knew there was no need to attack the man as only a critical hit could do anything to him, instead, he pulled them in, going for the men escorting them.


    Everyone somewhat dropped to the ground for cover, and in an instant, Sam realised that this was a good idea for him to do as well. Pretending the weapons weren¡¯t being moved by him could make this much easier.


    The three weapons went for the closest target to the man he assumed was their boss, and all of them landed.


    [ Life Steal 1 triggered, draining 1. ]


    Sam was happy, this was a good time for that to trigger, and as the blades dragged their edges across the man¡¯s body he instantly fell to the ground. The man had a crude dagger of his own, which was added to the floating weapons. Some of his free hands were dismissed to free up Energy, which he used to Force Blast people¡¯s eyes, making for an almost guaranteed hit. The next guard was the target of this combo, planting his Psyhands on his eyes and triggering Force Pulse was not an issue, as the man grabbed his eyes in pain he was a sitting duck.


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    The Shadow Fang landed a Critical hit, the total damage was more than enough to cut him down before he could uncover his eyes. Panic grew between the bandits, the boss could see again and was taking in the scene.


    ¡°The fuck is happening?¡± He looked at his dead companions before seeing the floating weapons, this brought his eyes straight to Sam. But Sam was glad to see that he didn¡¯t seem like he had pieced it together. ¡°You didn¡¯t tell me your weapons were possessed!¡±


    Sam didn¡¯t question it, he assumed that the lack of thinking time had him draw the weird conclusion, so he decided to run with it. ¡°I have no idea what¡¯s going on!¡± Sam shouted back.


    He chose to ignore that he wouldn¡¯t help in this situation, but rather pretend that he didn¡¯t have any clue.


    It seemed to work for now.


    The boss ran and jumped behind some stacked logs, he picked up a simple meat cleaver on the way. The rest of the bandits went into hiding as well, this was the moment that Sam needed. Picking up two more blades, one from the ground and one from a nearby makeshift table, he got to his feet and ran for the jungle. He used one of the blades to cut the rope holding his hands together, doing the same for the other prisoners.


    ¡°Run!¡± He shouted at them, but they just sat down in fear.


    He didn¡¯t have the chance to do more for them, he had to cut down another bandit that popped out, trying to stop him. But two well-placed eye pulses made him into an easy-to-hit target, slicing deep enough into his body to take him out right away.


    Running with all his might he disappeared into the jungle soon enough, as the weaponry followed him he knew that the people of the camp would know enough of what was going on to piece together how his abilities worked. But he didn¡¯t have a choice, he kept running, as fast as he could, as far as he could. He saw animals on the way but they were more startled than anything. He didn¡¯t know how well they could track, and he wasn¡¯t good at not getting tracked so the only thing he could do was to run in different directions and not just a straight line. Having seen the mountain from the bandit camp he decided to make for it, returning to his original idea of getting a view of the land.


    His weapons trailed after him, if he saw something in the distance which would be a problem to run to, his first thought was to cut it but that would make a very easy path to follow, so he opted to get around it instead.


    Lacking in energy still, he hadn¡¯t eaten for at least a whole day, he had gotten an acceptable amount of water and some uncomfortable rest, and he would do almost anything for a burger right now.


    As his panic calmed, his speed lowered to a brisk jog and he finally noticed that there was more information in his HUD.


    [ Experience gained: +6 000. ]


    Mentally sighing at how lucrative it was, XP-wise, to fight in PvP, he couldn¡¯t help himself from considering that perhaps he should do that more often...


    Having to stop and take a breather, his upgraded Player stamina was amazing compared to a normal human, especially compared to his pre-Player self, but it still had a limit. He was even more hungry and thirsty now. The water he got in the camp helped tons, but there was a limit to how much something you drank hours ago could help. He needed to find a safe source of water, but since the mountain looked rather big, he might get lucky there. He could also gamble on fruits but... even finding something that looked like things you knew could be dangerous if you were unlucky, even if you did find the correct fruit there were parasites, insects or other weird things to consider. His safest bet was to find something he could cook.


    Finally nearing the base of the mountain, he considered what to do from there. Given his angle of approach, the logical way to go was to the right, following the curve of the mountain, with that in mind he decided to go to the left instead. It might prove a waste of thought but at least he was trying.


    Growing more and more tired, exhaustion wasn¡¯t lacking before and this didn¡¯t help. He had been looking for hours and the light was slowly fading. His health had regenerated completely, but without his Armour, he would probably be easily one-shot by anything living here, if Goblins could do the amount of damage they did... this was not a fun place to be.


    Almost as if sent by a benevolent god, he could almost hear the angelic choir in the back of his head as he heard the sound of moving water. It sounded like a tiny waterfall in the near distance, which hurried his movements considerably!


    Barely avoiding tripping as he hurried towards the sound, he found what he was looking for. It was almost too perfect. A small clearing in the jungle connected to the mountain, a small stream of water became a tiny waterfall into a small pool that ran slowly into the distance through a small stream. Hesitantly tasting the water slightly, it was indeed fresh! He knew it was dangerous even if it was running clear like this, but he didn¡¯t care at the moment, drinking his fill there and then he was feeling alive again.


    It was growing dark but the low light through the waterfall showed him something he didn¡¯t expect, there was an opening to a cave behind the waterfall! Using the remainder of light from the setting sun he managed to get into it, and having the sun bounce off his pale body he got a softbox-bounce light effect, letting him see into most of the cave. Extending all his Psyhands let him feel around for creatures, spiders, scorpions or whatever things lived in caves, but he couldn¡¯t find anything he didn''t think was fine. There were even some bends in the natural walls of the cave entrance so it would hide the light from within it, if he could build a fire in there he would be set!


    Leaving the cave briefly he went out into the forest, using his Psyhands he picked dead wood from the floor, breaking off some here and there until he used the Moon Blade to cut up a decently sized log into smaller logs. He knew that lighting a fire was no easy task, but he had an ability few others had. He could rub with 22 hands at the same time, never tiring.


    Bringing all this into his cave, he put it down on the floor and prepared to light it, but before he could manage he drifted off into sleep.


    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    Waking up he felt surprisingly rested. He was exceptionally hungry, but just the thought that he had a relatively safe and hidden place to be, which had water, did so much to his mentality that all the fatigue buildup just hit him at once. Sleeping on the floor of a stone cave wasn¡¯t exactly pleasant, but it was fine for now.


    But, his most important thing now was getting food. There were bound to be some animals around, he saw plenty of them as he ran through the jungle but, they were scared, he was scared, it was just an all-around run away from each other moment.


    He had plenty of weapons, not much skill in butchering but he had done enough monster core retrieval to at least be fine with things. He knew what was meat and what wasn¡¯t, which in itself was a solid start.


    Deciding to secure food before he struggled with a fire, leaving the cave to look around he found that the pool that the waterfall landed in had fish! They weren¡¯t large, but there were a few of them, some freshwater crustations as well. His method of fishing was stupidly simple; pick them up! With his Psyhands that wouldn¡¯t be an issue.


    Going back into his cave he started preparing the wood, he had seen some survival shows on the internet, he had zero skills in it properly but he had the theory. And since he could speed-spin wood rather than needing a bow or using his hands, he had an unfair advantage in learning this.


    It only took a few moments to prepare the plank, of sorts, and the stick he planned to drill into it. Using one of his knives he made a groove and cut in a V from the side, as he had seen all the people online do. He prepared some tinder and dry moss to make this work before he put the stick in and started spinning it around like a high-speed drill. Putting pressure on it as well as the heat from the spinning speed made this work surprisingly well. He needed a few attempts to figure out the correct pressure, but he had an ember in a surprisingly short time! This turned into a fire with little effort from the preparation.


    As the fire grew slowly, due to the not perfect wood it took a bit more coaxing to get it burning properly, but eventually it was burning and he went to fish. Just lowering several Psyhands in the water he could grab the fish. This was a bit harder than expected as they reacted instinctively to the change of current in the water, he found out a good way of doing that soon enough; he just needed to grab their head and gills. There was a technique involved but he found that out soon enough. As the fish was struggling to get free he took the time to cut off its head and butcher it while keeping it in the air. His Psyhands made this very easy. He let the guts and stuff fall into the water, feeding the other creatures in there to become his food later. He did this to a few decent-sized fish, he was starving, after all.


    He struggled with cooking it, not because it was a problem or hard process, but in waiting long enough for it to be properly cooked before he wanted to eat it. His stomach growled most of the time until it was done, and when it finally was. They say that hunger is the best spice, and that couldn¡¯t be more true, this felt like the best meal he had ever eaten in his life. Sam knew that he should eat calmly, but no fibre in his body allowed that to happen and he scarfed it down like it was the last food on Earth. Cupping several of his Psyhands together he made a dumb cup that he could fetch water with, letting him drink as he ate, this decadence in his current situation did something to his mind, he felt surprisingly calm at the moment.


    The food was consumed and did its magic in his stomach, he was regaining energy by the second, and his thirst quenched. He felt amazing, but this moment of bliss was soured as he started to consider his situation. Still being very naked, the bandit boss had his armour, rings and shoes. With that armour, he had no chance of actually hurting him properly. The only chance he had to do any damage was for the Moon Blade to critically hit. Not to mention the surprise movement, either aggressively or defensively, from using his shoes.


    This was a problematic thing to consider, he couldn¡¯t do enough damage to take him out, based on the others he had fought, who put points in Vitality, he was super outmatched. His massive health pool of 35 didn¡¯t match anyone he had fought here so far. He needed an overview of where he was, he needed to brave the mountain, but doing so without, at the very least, shoes, would be a problem. He didn¡¯t like walking about naked, it was a bit chilly now that he was relaxing and not running around or stressing, so anything would be good. He could try to steal something from the camp, but that would mean going back there and... that was quite unsafe. He was fine as long as the fire heated his cave and he was surprisingly protected by the water. The only downside was the constant sound of the waterfall, though since that was a stable, static sound it would drown itself out soon enough.


    Taking the chance to rest he put some larger logs on the fire before he lay down on the stone floor, he fell asleep almost instantly. Though he had slept long from last night it didn¡¯t have the comfort of a full stomach, nor the comfort of the fire.


    Waking up sometime later, he found that the fire had died out, even though he put on a larger log before he fell asleep. Leaving the comfort of his cave he needed a solid toilet break, taking the time to carefully pick the leaves he used afterwards he didn¡¯t want to end up in a... situation... He also made sure to do his business far away from the cave, just in case someone were to find it. He ended up using tree leaves after testing them on his skin over a longer period, just in case, but it all ended up fine. Returning to the cave he had some time to think as he wandered around.


    The System moved him here for a reason, the solo dungeon, the Rental and other shit, the Ascendancy system... There was something weird about all of this, nothing he had heard about before. So either it was unique to him, or there were others in the same situation keeping the information to themselves. It gave him access to special upgrades, or at least he assumed as much as the first boon upgraded an existing ability, something he had never heard about before, the second gave him a new one, which wasn¡¯t unheard of but not exactly common.


    Grabbing another fish, he butchered it properly before reigniting the fire using the embers, he continued considering things as he prepared whatever meal this would be, dinner?


    Having no real choice at the moment, he had to decide if he wanted to live on the run, be afraid of being hunted, or become the hunter. Having managed to re-obtain his named weapons, as well as three cheap daggers from the camp, it seemed that he could instantly shoot down the others that didn¡¯t have his Armour. But he wanted that back. A problem, if he started hunting them down one by one, was that the boss probably would never take it off again, so if he were to do this, he might have to take him out first... if he took it off when sleeping or something. Given how he left the camp the chance of this was low, so he needed to find another way of doing this.


    Deciding that he needed to brave the mountain, he needed shoes at the very least, as the unknown mountain would most likely shred his feet. Optimally he would need gloves as well but... The only thing he could do now was to find some shoe stand-in and hold it in place around his feet with his Psyhands. Folded leaves could work but weren¡¯t exactly sturdy enough to survive repeat use, certain flexible bark could work but... he didn¡¯t exactly have the knowledge to even begin to find that. However... A thought popped into his head. Having seen survival videos on the internet during random autoplay moments he remembered something that could work.


    He set out into the jungle, weapons trailing him in the air as he went looking. He didn¡¯t have to look long before he found tall palm trees with coconuts. Getting them down was hardly an issue, though he did have to extend his Area¡¯s range to reach some of them. Though heavy he managed to get back to his cave with several coconuts in his hands. He had seen a video where someone made the simplest of shoes of the husks, as they were surprisingly tough to get into without tools. Now, he had tools, and he could even cheat with the ¡®bindings¡¯ keeping things to his feet as he could just hold them in place. Opening the coconuts was hardly a problem, the Moonblade made this an easy task. However, getting the fibrous husks off the inner shell took a bit more effort. Not that he didn¡¯t have time, but it was kind of annoying. His physical strength wasn¡¯t enough to just tear it off, so he needed to use a dagger and time.


    Failing several times, though getting some snacks and a high-nutrition drink on the way, he ended up with several husk pieces large enough to cover his feet. He had some hard shells and some softer outer husk pieces. He didn¡¯t know what they were called but it didn¡¯t matter. Having what he needed he felt surprisingly happy. It didn¡¯t do anything to cover his nude body, but it would allow him to climb at least. Now, since it was growing dark he just needed to wait before he started climbing. Not feeling tired at the moment, he decided to use the time to improve his living situation.


    Heading back into the jungle, he started gathering materials to try and make a simple bed. Not wanting it full of insects was the main problem, thinking that it was probably fine as long as he dried things before using them. He didn¡¯t have much choice and started gathering longer sticks for the frame, moss and similarly ¡®soft things¡¯ for bedding and some lianes for rope. Making some simple drinking containers from coconuts was also on his list.


    Tomorrow he was going to brave the mountain.

 Ch.034 - Climb

    Having spent most of the night making things, he was feeling surprisingly good about himself. Naturally, nothing of this could be considered good or even acceptable by most standards, but his standard was very, very low. The bed was just a frame on the floor to keep the moss and soft things contained. It was crude, to say the least, but it worked! He had a softer bed than he had before! Spending considerable time going through the moss, leaves and whatnot that he used as bedding to make sure there were no bugs or weird stuff in it, he felt confident in the end. Besides, he was living in a cave so... insects were probably unavoidable in the long run. The ¡®canteen¡¯ was also surprisingly easy to make in theory. Just get a coconut out of the husk and make a small hole in it, drink the contents, or leave it, but make a wooden plug to shove into the hole and you have a simple canteen. Now, that was the theory, the result was that he ended up with... more than one bowl out of this process. Breaking them by adding too much pressure, or just failing to open or remove the husk. It took quite some time before he got one he was happy enough with. The plug was surprisingly simple to make as it was just a somewhat conically shaped stick.


    If nothing else, he could understand how crafters liking their craft could enjoy their time, making things with your own hands was surprisingly nice, not something he had done for years.


    Making a carrying bag out of some large leaves folded together and wrapped in some vines as rope also worked after a few tries. Was it a good container? No, absolutely not, but it beat trying to carry things by hand. Since he couldn¡¯t manage to make that ¡®sphere holding knot¡¯ type wrapping so he could carry the coconut like a bag, this worked better. He was also considering trying to make scabbards out of this but fell somewhat short as he didn¡¯t feel confident in it being good enough to protect his body with blades in them... A few wrong moves and he¡¯d stab himself with his weapons.


    He had slept a lot the days before, and now with a bed, he got some rest as well before daybreak. It felt extremely nice to just lay down in a bed even as crude as this, but his day was barely starting.


    Packing up his things, which consisted of filling his makeshift canteen and putting it in his leaf bag, bringing his shoes that he tried, and failed, to tie to his feet he just bagged the surplus shoes before leaving, using two of his Psyhands to hold them against his feet. It took some practice before he felt safe enough to climb with them, but since the Psyhands didn''t have any arms attached to them, at least that part was not an issue.


    Shortly after feeling confident in his makeshift shoes, he started climbing, starting near his cave entrance. He used the Psyhands to probe for good places to grab with his hands or place his feet and also to check for creatures already perched there. Not good to grab a piece of rock only to find some stinging or biting creature there.


    The climb worked surprisingly well. His plan and makeshift shoes worked as well, though since they weren¡¯t fastened to his feet properly it was more like climbing on coconut shells with his feet, so the traction was two-fold. Rather than traction between the shoe and the surface, with the shoe securely fastened to the foot, it became traction between his foot and the shell which in turn had traction with the surface. It wasn¡¯t perfect but it protected his feet from the worst of the rocks. He wasn¡¯t exactly strong, but he was fine enough for his body weight, making surprising progress with the various vines, roots, trees and stone-holding spots he found on the way. It didn¡¯t take long before he had managed to get up to a surprising height, wondering how the fuck he was going to get back down once he decided to stop.


    As he got started properly he saw that there was a large pool of water through the source of the waterfall outside his cave, there were a lot of fish in there and the pool was significantly larger than his own, this was probably where the few fish in his pool came from. A good thing to know about.


    Continuing, another thing he didn¡¯t expect was the increased wind as he got higher, given his naked form and the need to spread his legs out, the wind around his nether regions and between his cheeks was a... strange and vulnerable feeling he didn¡¯t foresee before this started.


    He had to take frequent breaks, and his increased stamina from becoming a Player still only stretched so far, it was interesting but also terrifying. Without that boost, he would have done much worse. The adrenaline and stress from climbing kept him warmish, though as his fingers cooled down slightly it became a bit harder to climb, warranting another break in relative protection from the wind, letting the sun warm him up again before continuing.


    Counting himself lucky that he was not afraid of heights, it was somewhat hard to keep that feeling as he got higher and higher, the danger from falling having already passed terminal a while ago. There was a kind of natural fear in the back of his head that screamed for him to stop this lunacy. But he continued, counting himself lucky that there were still enough stable hand and footholds, only almost falling a few times due to the root giving way or the foothold not being stable enough. With enough breaks, he eventually found himself at the mountain peak!


    It took most of the day, he was glad he had the water with him but since there was a waterfall and stream leading up most of the mountain he was more annoyed that he didn¡¯t consider packing food. Having stopped before he reached the topmost of the multi-peak mountain he decided that it was good enough, at least for now. The wind was also biting cold, to the point that he sought refuge behind trees, boulders or anything that would shield him. If nothing else the view up there was breathtaking, had it been in better circumstances. He also got to see what he wanted.


    This place was an Island, it was massive, and walking from one side to the other would easily take a whole day if not more. Probably mainly due to the terrain and lack of proper sight of any landmarks due to the trees and vegetation blocking everything. It was surprisingly round, having a beach running around the whole perimeter as far as he could see. The whole island was covered in trees, mostly palms and jungle but there seemed to be some odd coloured ones scattered in here and there. A few smaller mountains, or exceptionally large rocks, stood up between the trees here and there. Several lakes scattered the lands with a larger one looking like a sideways number 9, with an island in the ¡®eye¡¯ of the number. Several camps lay around the perimeter as well as what looked like the one he ran from in the mouth of the number. There were some clearings of sorts between the trees scattered about. Some looked manufactured through deforestation, others looked more natural due to the lakes or just something else.


    He could see what looked like ruins in a few spots, large stone constructions reclaimed by time. The most interesting at the moment was something that looked like an older camp, it had a similar feel to it as the bandit camp he escaped from, just that it had no fires and from this distance looked abandoned. The camp he ran from was near water, most likely fresh, the other was seemingly in the middle of nowhere, so if it was the same people living there they probably abandoned it for a better location.


    Deciding to not go back down just yet, he wandered about in the plateau on the top of the mountain, the wind was surprisingly calm and warm within the forest up there, and hadn¡¯t it been for how hard it was to get up or down, he could have made that place a relatively safe base. Popping back out towards the ledges to get a better look at things down on ground level before retreating in the warmth, gave him a decent overview of the lay of the land. Wondering if the different camps were allies or enemies gave him some thought about abusing their animosity towards each other. If they were allies it was a bit worse for him. How these people got here was also a question, if they were all transported here like Sam was, were they Ascendants as well?


    If so, the System either had a horrible sense of humour or a poor choice of character. He was still here without a quest or mission, he had checked the quest log many times, and he had no idea what he was supposed to be doing. Right now he was just surviving, barely. Or rather, once he found the cave he was doing somewhat well for himself. He now had food and water, a place to rest... if he could get down from here. Now he just needed clothing, or better yet; the rest of his gear.


    Due to how the mountain sloped, he could more easily get down on the side that faced the 9-lake, which meant the side facing the camp he ran away from. He did intend to get a closer look after he had escaped, but he didn''t feel like doing so naked. That being said, going there was almost a guarantee to get some clothing.


    Using a few minutes to consider what to do, the smartest thing might be to wait until the next day before getting down, however, he didn¡¯t have a good place to sleep nor did he feel safe up here. Even if it got dark he could feel around with his Psyhands, he only needed 9 to carry his weapons, and his makeshift bag held his coconut, leaving 13 hands to feel around with. That should be plenty.


    Deciding to start going down, he could find a place to pause if needed, he quickly found that the trip down on this side of the mountain was substantially easier than the other. Even though he had to swap his ¡®shoes¡¯ a few times as they finally wore out, and the downward pressure was too much at times, he managed to get to the base of the mountain in almost record time. The first third was a bit dodgy as it was steeper, but once he passed that the terrain flattened out considerably, almost to the point that he could just hike downwards.


    The sun was setting, and it wasn¡¯t long after that it had again gotten dark, he could leave for his little cave, or he could take a trip past the big camp for some resources first. The thirst for revenge got the better of him, he wanted his stuff back and though he took out some of them on the way out, there were still plenty left. They had clothes he could clean and use. Knowing from weight estimates when working in the corner store, he couldn¡¯t carry a grown man but he could drag him if he didn¡¯t struggle. He had a plan, the first person alone from their group was going to donate.


    Doing his best to sneak, even without his gear, bending his knees and taking his time stepping, listening, taking it calm with his weapons floating around, he made slow progress. He avoided stepping on the pointy things on the ground by using his coconut shoes. They weren¡¯t perfect nor comfortable, but as with the mountain, it beat getting wounded in this stranded situation.


    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    It took some time before he heard someone, it was two of them and they were walking around with a torch for lighting, talking about things they missed from Earth since they came here. Metaphorical dick-waggling about how many women they wanted or how much alcohol they could drink was the gist of their talk. He didn¡¯t feel confident in being able to take out two people at the same time, not without all his daggers. But since they were so nicely lighting themselves up, he could confirm that one of them had a dagger in what looked like a bark sheath on his hip, and the other had a short sword or longer dagger, he didn¡¯t know from this distance.


    ¡°Hold on, just gotta take a piss.¡± One of them commented, which felt like a gift to Sam. he was serving himself on a platter.


    ¡°Aait.¡± The man with the torch commented as he kept walking for a few more steps before stopping.


    The man fumbled with his belt and pants to get ready to do his business, though he wasn¡¯t exactly around the torch it was plenty of light for Sam to line up his attacks. Knowing from experience with earlier targets, if he took his time and accurately hit logical weak points, like the throat, neck and such, it would be a guaranteed critical hit. However that took considerable focus to get all blades properly aligned before attacking, and he couldn¡¯t do much movement. Luckily, when pissing in the woods you don¡¯t always move around that much, so he took his time.


    [ Silent Killer activated. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    The man had zero chance. Never before had Sam gotten this much time to line up all weapons properly. Aiming everything at his neck and in a single move he pulled them all through the soft flesh. Though no weapon triggered their abilities, the sheer damage was more than enough to take him out and cut his head off through the six weapons, with one being a scimitar.


    Had there been enough light around him, the blood splatter would have been gruesome, but instead, it all happened under the cover of darkness. Though this wasn¡¯t entirely silent the man with the torch didn¡¯t react until the body fell with a thud.


    ¡°You ok? Sounded like you fell down.¡± He didn¡¯t sound worried, more like he was ready to mock his friend profusely when he confirmed that he fell when pissing in the jungle.


    Instead, he got the six blades coated with the blood of his friend raking across his face, neck and chest. No critical hits this time but the total damage was enough to take him out. He made sure to get the torch up from the ground as he fell, so he didn¡¯t start any forest fires. Using some dirt he rolled it around until it stopped burning, was surprisingly easy to just jam the fiery end into the ground for it to stop burning.


    Needing a few minutes for his eyes to get used to the dark again he spent that time just listening for anyone, feeling confident when he didn¡¯t hear anything besides forest sounds once the fire was put out, he went through the men¡¯s equipment.


    One man had peed himself when he fell, so those pants weren¡¯t interesting, though the other man had clean pants. The pants were made of some leather-looking material, they could very well be leather but he hadn¡¯t felt leather this soft, perhaps they had a crafter? It didn¡¯t matter, they were a bit too big for him but there was some cordage to use as a belt, so he was happy. The man also had a shirt of the same material, it felt like a few numbers too large, but he didn¡¯t care; it was clothing. The shoes were far too big, but he felt good when the pissing man¡¯s shoes, first of all, weren¡¯t hit by his stream and secondly, fit better to his feet. They were made entirely of leather, with several pieces stacked on top of each other and sewn together as soles with some wrapping around the material to create an enclosed shoe. It didn¡¯t smell entirely good but it was better than the coconuts!


    Refusing to use their underwear, he¡¯d just have to go without, but this was much, much better than before. Having some flexible leather clothing as well as shoes made him feel incredibly good about himself. Even though they were drenched in blood, they could be cleaned away when he got back to the cave.


    As far as gear went, their weapons were crude and primitive, but to his surprise, their damage values were still within the expected norm. The Dagger had a Damage rating of 5, and the Short Sword had 7. It wasn¡¯t the best but it was still an upgrade, and since he could wield a bunch more weapons there was no need to not take them. Not liking that he needed two Psyhands to wield the short sword he still took it for now. They didn¡¯t seem to have anything else on them, and since the pants didn¡¯t have any pockets there was not much else to rummage through.


    Now he just needed to decide to go check out the camp or to head back. Being this close was practical, he somewhat knew the way back to his little cave, even in the dark. It helped that there was a sound beacon, meaning the waterfall, to help guide him when he got close. He decided to check out the camp.


    Continuing in the cover of darkness he snuck to the bandit camp he escaped from. Keeping to the treeline and staying out of the lit areas, he took his time to scout around. The adrenaline from the situation kept him from growing tired, even though he had been doing a lot of working out today, at least for him. Looking around in the camp, moving from point to point to not linger, there weren¡¯t too many people doing things. Though as it was the middle of the night this made sense. This did give him a good idea, he wanted to see what was going on with the Boss who had his gear. And guessing that the most fancy tent was his place, he looked for something that could be considered the most fancy ¡®building¡¯ in the camp.


    It didn¡¯t take long for him to find it, most of the tents were just that, tents. They were multi-people tents made of pieces of leather sewn or somehow attached, creating a kind of tarp-based tent. Worked fine to keep the water out and heat in. Most of them had an opening towards fire and were placed in rough rings around larger fireplaces, so one fire could heat multiple tents. He could see the holding area he was in when he came to, but there were no prisoners there at the moment... Seemed like the others either didn¡¯t make it or were taken care of the following day.


    Choosing to ignore that for now, they had their chance, he continued to look for, and found, what he assumed to be the boss''s tent. Or rather, the boss¡¯s building. An actual wooden building, crude and simple but still a proper building, stood between the tents. It was placed on the landmass in the mouth of the 9-lake, where the landmass went into the bottom curly part of the 9-shape. This made it surprisingly easy, and hard, to access it. He either needed to walk through the whole camp or swim. He was an acceptable swimmer but he had never tried to swim silently before, and he didn¡¯t know what lived in the waters there. A brief thought was that he was dressed as them, so if he just walked through the camp as if he belonged there, that could work. Though it might work if he put that away, he would be too well-armed or have floating weapons following him... not exactly hard to guess.


    No, the most likely options were to sneak through or swim. He contemplated this as he relocated slightly closer and found that the sneaking option was probably the best. Though the camp was lit by campfire, there were still plenty of dark places not touched by the light. He could probably walk upright and not be seen, and even if he was they would probably assume that he belonged here, that was the natural thing, after all... Right?


    His desperation for his gear¡¯s protection had him continue with that plan. He kept to the shadows and tried to move relatively naturally through the camp. It worked fine, people around were busy with whatever they were doing, and being barely awake from before helped the situation. He was noticed once but the man who looked at him just nodded upwards, Sam had a moment of inner crisis but nodding upwards in return as he continued to move seemed to pacify the situation. He kept his weapons as high up in the air as he could, hiding them in the darkness. Doing his best to keep the edges pointed towards the source of light it should, hopefully, cut down on reflections in the metal as well.


    Being surprised that this worked so well, he found himself at the little hut in the middle of the camp, doing his best to sneak over there he found a window at an elevation. The building was made of sturdy sticks either tied or somehow glued together, but there weren¡¯t enough gaps to properly look through, so he needed the window. He couldn¡¯t reach it without aid but there were several simple boxes around. Being relatively lightweight he was able to slowly and silently move a box to the point he needed to be able to stand on it. The wood creaked slightly as he stepped on it but remained strong.


    Peering into the windowless room he saw what he needed, he held back a dissatisfied click of his tongue as he saw the boss sleeping in there, but with all his gear on him even when sleeping. The room didn¡¯t have much interest besides the simplest of chairs, something that could work as a table and some seemingly random objects.


    He wanted to take him out, he wanted his stuff back, but there wasn¡¯t much he could do. Even with perfect critical hits, the Defense rating of 40 would only let the Moonblade make it through, and that damage would barely kill Sam... This man probably had much smarter consideration of stat placements...


    Though... his carrying capacity wasn¡¯t that strong with the Psyhands, strangling or breaking his neck was out of the question. If he could shove something in his mouth, something that couldn¡¯t be grabbed with normal hands. Like water or dirt, he could keep that in place for him to choke? Pinching or plugging the nose is easy, but if he just gets it in his throat the nose isn¡¯t an issue.


    ¡°The fuck you doing?¡± A voice behind him asked suddenly.

 Ch.035 - Dirt!

    Turning around towards the voice, Sam saw what looked like a man who had just woken up, there were some boats along the shore so he might be from there?


    Not thinking about that too much he brought down all his weapons from above, the man, not wearing any armour nor being one of the higher power individuals in the camp, had no chance to even shout out. He was cut down where he stood with deep gashes from above, his shoulders, some across his chest and the Moonblade cutting into his skull, it was instant as his blood and brain juice spread across the dirt.


    [ Experience gained: +2 000. ]


    Using a solid few seconds to listen around for anyone reacting, he was very happy to not notice anything. Even the boss remained sleeping. Mentally letting out a sigh of relief he continued with his plan. Placing all his weapons nearby so they were ready to go, holding the Moonblade in his hands for an even faster reaction if it was needed, considering that the boss might run through the door for aid, he needed to do something about that. Another problem was the teleporting shoes, they could be activated by a thought.


    Though as they were loafers, they might be relatively easy to pull off slowly and calmly, he might not wake up. Reaching out with several Psyhands, Sam grabbed the shoes by their heels and started to slowly, very, very slowly and calmly take them off his feet. Luckily the Psyhands were much calmer than his normal hands, with no normal shake as most hands have. Though he had that bonus it was close to agony watching the bandit¡¯s face as he did this staring for any movement or reaction. But, luckily it seemed to work fine!


    Having taken it that slow, even though the man moved a little, his legs remained calm letting Sam use several minutes to slowly pull the shoes off his heel and lift them off the toes. Hovering them over to himself he used precious seconds to put them on himself, the main issue was getting the other shoes off, but it was worth it. Just the safety net of having the Flash Step available was amazing. Almost falling off his wooden crate he still felt it worth it as he saw the man still sleeping.


    This might actually work.


    Preparing for his next step, he again considered how to stop him from running out of the building once he woke up. Blocking the door was not enough, this place was rickety and he could just jump through the window. The only way was to tie him down or at least trip him.


    That was a good idea, tie something around his legs, letting him struggle to get that loose as he choked. Finding rope was not an issue as the boats nearby were tied to poles, the rope could easily be cut and he had some hemp-like rope in minutes. Tying it somewhere safely was worse, though he had a better idea. He could just hold the end of it so he could yank and fuck with it when needed. It was better than trying to tie it to something in there, also allowing him to use more strength than his Psyhands. However, he still needed to get at least one of his legs tied to the other end.


    Luckily the man was sleeping with pants!


    Sam took care, using a lot of time this time as well. Due to it still being night and people were sleeping, some were patrolling but it didn¡¯t seem like anyone where around here. Reaching in with a Psyhand and the rope made it seem like the rope was animated, kind of interesting had the scenario not been so terrifying. He made sure to move the rope around his leg calmly and slowly, tying a simple slipknot at the end so he could tighten it when the time came instead of doing that now. It was working scarily well, almost like he was using up some divine aid.


    Once he felt confident about the rope, he readied himself. Holding onto the rope with both hands he picked up a bunch of dirt with his Psyhands, not being sure how much he needed he chose to err on the side of caution. Floating it into the building was not an issue and he was ready.


    He waited several seconds, getting the rhythm of his breathing, he wanted to wait for the exhale. One Psyhand was free and ready to open his mouth when the time came. He breathed calmly in. Out. In. Out. The timing was simple, and as the man breathed out Sam used his free Psyhand to open his mouth before shoving several handfuls of sand into his mouth, nose and face. The man woke up with a massive jolt and tried to cough but couldn¡¯t. Sam pushed all he could muster against his face, feeling his hands grab onto the Psyhands. Once they were interacting with something they became corporeal. Though this was only a few hands at the same time at most, letting him just move them back once they were let go of. But this meant that his pressure weakened considerably, you didn¡¯t need much to overpower the coughing reflex or the power of the tongue. The man struggled, looking around in panic as he tried to dig dirt out of his mouth and nose. Sam pushed onwards and used his Psyhand ¡®fingers¡¯ to push it further into his throat. This seemed to work very well as his coughing and panic increased dramatically. Looking around himself again with bloodshot eyes he saw Sam looking through the window, scampering away he made for the door covering the entrance, doing his best to scream through the clogging. But there was barely a sound as dirt and sand clogged his throat.


    Stumbling out of bed was the queue Sam needed, pulling strongly on the rope the slipknot tightened, and putting his entire weight on the rope had the man slide into the bed which in turn was against the wall. His panic grew as he now struggled with breathing but also being pulled away from getting aid. He resorted to throwing random objects at Sam, all of them missed. Most hit the walls or just flew out the window to land in the dirt outside.


    This lasted a short while, it felt like hours but was more like half a minute or so before he passed out. Sam could see his erratic pulse around his throat still, he knew that choking usually knocks you out first before you die. Not wanting to wait for that to happen he let go of the rope and climbed in, doing his best to fumble the armour off the unconscious man. He placed the Moonblade, on the window frame as he let go of it, getting the armoured shirt off relatively easily. Now being unarmored it was only the matter of handling the man.


    [ Silent Killer activated. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    Pulling the weapons against his throat again and again, he could hear the metal grind against the sand and dirt clogging up his throat, a surprisingly satisfying sound. Having to cut several times it wasn¡¯t until the fourth critical hit against the unconscious man¡¯s neck that the XP window popped up.


    [ Experience gained: +10 000. ]


    [ XP to lv.14: 20825 / 40960 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€????? ]


    It was insane how high XP values there were in PvP, he had considered this many times before but he was slowly becoming interested in continuing PvP. At least against those who deserve it, to use that term.


    ¡°You OK in there, Boss?¡± A voice asked from outside the door.


    Sam froze, he held the armour in his hand, and there was blood everywhere, pooling up, flowing through the floor, and splattered across walls and over all of Sam. There was zero chance he could avoid this if seen. He had three choices, leave and ignore his rings, letting them go into alert. Attack the man, possibly having others see it, having them go into alert. Or... pretend to be the boss...


    He wasn¡¯t good at voice, and he barely remembered what the voice of the man was when he talked to him the other day in the cage.


    ¡°Sn-¡± he coughed once, his voice was too high but the cough allowed him to fake that. ¡°Snake, I got it. Fuck off.¡± Reaching out of the window to Psyhand-grab his other weapons he could taste his heartbeat, he was ready for this to go to shit, he would just have to cut the fingers off the boss to get his rings, and put on the vest later.


    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    ¡°Oh... ok... fine.¡± The man outside commented, sounding somewhat dejected. Almost like he was hoping to be of use or to be helpful.


    This had Sam let out a massive, silent sigh. His bullshit worked!


    Using a few seconds to get the rings off the man¡¯s fingers, slipping them on his own, he put the armour on hastily before leaving the place as fast as he could.


    Picking up his weapons on the way he left in the same way he entered, sneaking but in a non-obvious way. However, once he walked past a tent he almost bumped into someone.


    ¡°Oh, sorry.¡± The other man said. ¡°It¡¯s dark so... wait... hold on... Why do you have the boss¡¯ armour?¡±


    The man shouted ALARM as loudly as he could before Sam managed to bring down the blades on him, though the man died the alarm shout was mimicked across the camp and people were scampering out of their tents.


    [ Experience gained: +2 000. ]


    Fuck.


    Sam bolted, running all he could for the tree line, he felt very safe with his armour back on, but he didn¡¯t want to risk anything. However before he could reach the safety of the jungle, several bandits cut him off, standing between him and the jungle, weapons and tools in hand.


    The solution to this was simple. Running towards them he activated the Flash Step ability as he got in range to end up between them. He felt a pulse of energy and in the moment he blinked, he found himself on the other side continuing mid-step. He hadn¡¯t tried this ability before but this was amazingly practical!


    Not waiting for any reaction he hightailed in between the trees and kept running. Hoping the others would at least pause a bit he made sure to not just go the straight path back, like last time he took a long detour, making sure to find the stream coming from his waterfall, walking downstream a long distance before moving on. It was simple, but hopefully effective enough. He felt great, exhausted from the running, the long day and the adrenaline slowly leaving his system, but he got all of this important gear back! He also got to test the Flash Step shoes, and it was incredibly powerful. If there is a way to upgrade the uses per day or learn how to do that ability directly, it could be an incredibly useful skill to have.


    The night was fading to the morning light by the time he got back to his cave, picking up a fish on the way past the pool he prepared it like he had done the others, though this time he opted to not clean it with the knife he used to kill people. At least not until it was thoroughly cleaned. He didn¡¯t have any soap or anything to properly clean them with, so he found himself a sharp-ish rock to use as a knife. It was... not a pretty cut, but he didn¡¯t care, he just needed it good enough to eat. As he was doing that he focused some other hands on getting a fire going. Being ambidextrous must be great, and being... 20-dextrous was kind of insane. The fire was soon enough hot and burning, the fish was ready and skewered on some sticks. He could barely keep awake, scarfing down his food as soon as it was done before collapsing in his bed with the hint of a satisfied smile on his lips.


    Waking up he didn¡¯t feel entirely good. Health-wise he was fine, it was just the sweaty feel of sleeping with leather clothing on, being drenched in blood which had now stopped being liquid or even gooey. He decided that the rest of the day was going to be a maintenance day. He had his rings, he had his armour, his weapons and finally, his shoes. The latter needed to recharge as his use was apparently ¡®today¡¯.


    He took his time waking up, drinking some fresh water, and eating some more fish he didn¡¯t get to before sleeping. Making a mental list of what he needed to do before turning in for the night... Or rather, he did his best work during the night, so perhaps he¡¯d just continue like that. He pondered this as he started with wrestling his clothes off himself before washing them a little downstream. It felt weird being naked again. It wasn¡¯t that he felt like he had much to hide, it was just uncomfortable as he wasn¡¯t used to it. Taking his time to scrape the blood off with rocks and some of the smaller knives, rubbing the rest off in the water with some moss as a sponge, he used considerable time to get it proper. The same with the pants, he washed them thoroughly inside and out, since he was going commando in them he wanted them as clean as possible for just that reason. The shoes were easier, good thing that the boss had decent foot hygiene, but he still used some time to get them as clean as possible. His armour was surprisingly easy to clean, even though it was drenched with all the boss¡¯s blood. In the end, he felt satisfied with his clean gear, at least as far as he could get without soap. Taking some time to get some more coconuts, he decided to make some more bowls, that could let him make soups or stews, having something to boil things in, at least he saw something like that on the internet once and... it wasn¡¯t like he didn¡¯t have the time.


    Musing about what happened with Elara and Janik, who were the only two ¡®people¡¯ he cared for at the moment, thinking about the things he missed he found himself saddened. He was fine.... all things considered, but it was easier to be properly fine when you had modern comforts and didn¡¯t live in a cave with the threat of being murdered at almost any time. Or the thought that he was going to kill more people before the day was over. One of the most interesting things was that he still didn¡¯t feel as much as he thought he would having killed as many as he had. It wasn¡¯t an amazing number but he had forgotten the exact numbers. There were the first two when he got the Ascendant Quest, the three on the beach, three or so more escaping the camp and three last night. Unless he missed some he felt that he had killed 11 people, and he didn¡¯t care. It felt the same as any monster, Kobold or Goblin.


    It might be because they deserved it in his mind, having killed or planning to kill people without good reasons was enough to put them on that list. Reliving these moments had him suddenly realize that he was done with a few things he had planned for the day. He had gotten into some more coconuts and lost some of the milk inside but the flesh made a nice snack. Trying to boil some water proved that this worked fine, it seemed that the water kept the wood-like bowl from burning, at least if he was a bit careful with it. His Psyhands were still fire-immune making all of this very easy to handle. As the day went he had a small stock of food, dried and cooked fish as well as some boiled water cooling down, he used the other half of the ¡®bowl¡¯ as a lid, trying to keep insects out of them.


    All in all, this was a productive day, he didn¡¯t have the skill to make rope or anything practical, but he could cut down wood and leave it somewhat close to the fire so it passively dried out, he had to replace some moss in his bed after laying down in it caked in blood and gore, but by the time night settled in, he had a small stock of cooked food that would last at least a few days as well as some safe water and food. He considered making some cutlery, but since his Psyhands were as clean as the air could be, there was no need.


    Had this been a camping trip without the whole murder thing, it would have been surprisingly nice.


    Considering sleeping during the night this time, he could go to one of the ruins tomorrow, they looked interesting from the mountaintop, though it wasn¡¯t like he could see any details up there, but he wanted to take it relatively calm for at least one day as he figured out what to do here on the island. There had to be more to it than murdering everything and surviving, if that was the deal the System would give him a quest... right?


    He still liked the system for giving him Player powers, but he hated it for all the shit it had done to him both before and after becoming a Player. He needed to find out what the Ascendance system was if he ever got back to Earth, being given bonuses like that didn¡¯t feel like it would be ¡®free¡¯ without a reason.


    The reward for this shit better be worth it. Another plan he made was that tomorrow, he was going to capture someone and ask for information. He had a good chance to do that last night with the first two people he met but... He couldn¡¯t gamble on them getting an attack in. Tomorrow, with his full gear and with his shoes recharged, would be very different.


    Choosing to go out of the cave, fully dressed and geared now that everything had tried, he sat outside with his waterfall, looking at the stars for a while before turning in. He was going to head towards the ruins and stop someone for some questions on the way.

 Ch.036 - Abandoned camp

    He struggled a little to fall asleep, but that was mostly due to overthinking about things. Once he managed to calm his mind he fell asleep almost instantly, his body worn with fatigue. The bed was surprisingly comfortable for being what it was, naturally, it couldn¡¯t measure up to a real modern bed, but he¡¯d take any comfort that he could.


    Having undressed before he went to bed, feeling surprisingly safe in the cave, he decided to have a proper morning bath and ¡®shower¡¯ in the waterfall before he dried up and dressed. With the drying, as it had to happen passively, this took a short while. Showering in the waterfall worked surprisingly fine, though he was up to his waist in water at the time due to the depth of the pool it was still good. The water wasn¡¯t exactly warm, but not cold either, it was fine, having been heated by the sun and sun-warmed rocks over time, it could be defined as pleasantly lunk warm.


    Once he had dried enough to not have the clothing be problematic, he clothed and geared himself properly, still missing scabbards for his weapons, but since he never really grew tired using the Psyhands, it was fine in a way but there was something just pleasant having it strapped to your body, it felt more hands-free even though he had 24 hands to work with. Packing both water and food this time, he felt better and more ready for a day of stuff happening.


    Pondering for a short moment, he wondered which way was to the ruins, he remembered seeing a few, but also seeing more camps, boulder mountains and pools... there was a lot of stuff around even though the island was massive. Deciding that it didn¡¯t matter, he headed for the thing he remembered being somewhat this way.


    Trekking through the jungle, fully kitted out with defences and boons, though missing a bunch of cheap daggers, felt great! The fear of getting blindsided by something random was dramatically lowered. Though he could still be blindsided and critted into oblivion, the fear of dying from a rogue claw was gone. He still proceeded carefully, listening for anything that sounded weird or out of place. Most creatures ran away as soon as he came into range of them, this was the same for what looked like mini-leopards and what he could best explain as a six-legged, scorpion-tailed T-rex the size of a housecat. He... had questions about that last one...


    The trek was calm and nice, he didn''t even need to defend himself this time. Though walking towards the ¡®back¡¯ of the island, compared to the main mountain not placed in the centre of the island, meant that he was walking away from the camp he fucked with yesterday. Which in one way was fine, he probably had to return there later, there were also other camps and things around so he might happen on one of those now that he had lost track of where he was. Always able to see the massive mountain he had a point of reference, but not a good one to know where he was on the floor.


    He came to a clearing in the near distance, slowed down considerably and did his best to sneak closer. Through the trees, he could see a camp, or at least what remained of one. It seemed like it was left in a hurry, and lots of resources were left to fade on their own. Tents were torn, boxes shattered, clothing spread around and shredded, it just looked like a bunch of strong toddlers with weapons washed through the place. He was uncertain, places like these don¡¯t feel logical that they¡¯d be empty. Animals or something would move in.


    Not many seconds later, he heard a familiar screech. A Goblin came out of one of the fallen tents with pants on his head and a single shoe. He laughed as he stumbled about ¡®clothed¡¯. Other Goblins looked at him and joined him in laughter. They were out of Sam¡¯s reach, but since he only needed 12 hands to control his current arsenal, leaving 10 hands, or 5 Energy free for other things. He could use that energy to almost double his range, bringing the three Goblins within range.


    Setting his target as one of the two who weren¡¯t all dressed up, he sent his weapons out, slicing at him with all his speed.


    [ Silent Killer activated. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    He was lucky today, three of his weapons landed a critical hit, one being the Moonblade. The Goblin fell immediately. The others, not able to see where the attacks came from, panicked and looked around, giving him a second chance for an attack.


    [ Shadow Strike triggered, target is blind for 1 second. ]


    The Goblin survived, but Sam could barely see his eyes losing focus, looking around like someone turned off the lights as he started panicking. However, it only lasted a second and allowed a second attack. It was already heavily damaged, barely standing from the first attack, he had zero chance in the second.


    With two of his friends dead, the dressed-up Goblin panicked and tried to run away from the carnage. The one shoe only hampered him in the sense of speed, opening his back for the floating weapons. The first volley of attacks landed solid, with no triggers nor critical hits, leaving the Goblin alive but very hurt, it staggered away as the blades came back to finish the job.


    [ Experience gained: +900. ]


    Pulling his weapons back to the jungle, waiting to see if anyone reacted to this, he remained there for what felt like a minute or so, listening, waiting. Having heard nothing, not even far away movement, he decided to come out of hiding and have a look through the camp. His weapons were floating around him, ready to strike at a moment''s notice, as he started by checking the closest tent.


    Besides a few torn pieces of clothing, there was nothing in there. He harvested the Goblin¡¯s Cores before continuing, netting him three. Continuing to check out the camp he couldn¡¯t see other Goblins either, seems the ones he killed might be the only ones. Finding only things destroyed or smeared with enough shit that he don¡¯t want to touch it even with the Psyhands, he didn¡¯t see much of interest. The whole place, which seemed like it used to be a decent forest camp, with leather tents, fires, storage and workbenches, was now reduced to trash.


    Continuing through the camp he overheard some excited and almost desperate-sounding Goblins. Sneaking towards the sounds he wondered what was going on. Moving behind a tent he saw two more, jumping and reacting to something, one picked up a rock and threw it at something, and the other stabbed something with his spear. Sam snuck over to another tent and as he rounded it he could see more.


    The two were torturing some creature who was caught in a large, sturdy wooden cage. It was not unlike the one he was locked up in a few days ago, but he couldn¡¯t see what it was, something furry, so some animal. Well, they were made of Experience, and Goblins were horrible existences anyway, being within range meant that he had extra energy to burn, which was going to go in their eyes.


    The tried and true method of focusing Force Pulses into their eyes left them unguarded for his weapons, raking across their chest and back it didn¡¯t take many seconds to kill them both.


    [ Experience gained: +600. ]


    Walking over he intended to get their cores before continuing, but now that he was closer he could see what they were attacking. The wooden sturdy cage, with smaller holes than the human-trapping one he was in before, had what looked like a humanoid fox girl inside. Her once russet fur was matted, clumped, pale and looked horrible. She was covered in various wounds, he could see blunt force trauma from the thrown rock, and a few wounds on her hands and legs from being stabbed by a dull spear. They didn¡¯t look deep but probably still hurt, the Goblins probably wanted to eat her. She looked incredibly malnourished, barely awake and barely alive. She let out a weak whimper as she managed to barely open her eyes to look in Sam¡¯s direction, her pink and purple eyes looked at him with only pain and barely any life left before her eyes closed.


    Sam contemplated what to do, she was a beastfolk and would most likely die very soon, he could end her pain and collect the XP, or just leave and let nature handle it. The nicest thing would probably be to let her out of her misery, he didn¡¯t have any healing potions or any training to help her. She¡¯d be fucked anyway so might as well.


    As he pulled in the Moonblade, he saw her force her eyes open and try to drag herself to face him, only barely managing to move herself. He was surprised she had that kind of energy left, but she proceeded to let out a whine followed by what sounded like words.


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.¡°Kirn... var...¡± The words sounded pained and desperate. ¡°...Krarn.¡± She added before her eyes closed as she let out a weak whining sound.


    This caught him off guard, she was... communicating with him? Was she asking him for help in whatever passes for a language in her mind? He was intrigued but at the same time wary. If he were to help her, would she turn on him later properly seeing that he¡¯s a human?


    The other beastfolk he had slaughtered in the Dungeons didn¡¯t speak much, at least not towards him or Janik, he also couldn¡¯t actively remember if he saw any talk between them. Was there a difference between the Beastfolk in the Dungeons compared to the outside? He had met Kobolds before, they were talking, and some even knew English. The Harpy and Kobold at the Brothel not only spoke English but were on Earth. Were they originally from a Dungeon or Aetheria?


    So many questions he didn¡¯t know the answer to. If there was a difference between Dungeon and non-Dungeon creatures, then this island wouldn¡¯t be a Dungeon and more like any area of Aetheria.


    But, if nothing else, he knew as an intimate fact that some beastfolk were friendly, though he didn¡¯t know why there was a difference. He had read some information that a Beastmaster was involved in the Brothel, which would explain a few things there. They could tame monsters to fight for them, suppose he found a different way. But the Kobolds in the village in Aetheria, or the other ones on Earth working with TAC, there were a lot of them not bound to a Beastmaster, did they have some System contract like the Companion bond to Elara?


    Sam wanted Janik here for several reasons, this just made him want him here even more. Having only been here for a few days the vacation feel he got last night was long gone.


    His mind returned to the matter at hand, he crouched next to the caged dying creature and wondered what he should do with her. The part of him that originally wanted to just end her suffering was still thinking that, but other parts of him now saw her differently, she spoke to him, though somewhat mumbly due to weakness and pain, it sounded like actual words.


    ¡°Damn it.¡± Sam commented to himself. His internal conflict of paranoia and wanting to help were struggling, but it seemed that the wish to help or learn from her was higher. Worst-case scenario he could always just kill her later if it proved to be a necessity.


    Opening the cage was not an issue, it had a similar locking mechanism to the one he was in before. As he pulled the door open, forcing its movement due to the lack of proper hinges, the Beastfolk didn¡¯t move or react, she was breathing but that was about it. Taking a closer look at her before he went in he noted that she had two tails, the first time he had seen that.


    He started by poking her, just to see if there was a reaction, his blade swarm was ready to go in case there was something, but wanting to make sure nothing was going to happen before he properly touched her he took his time. Poking, gently shaking and somewhat trying to wake her. Nothing worked, and the only thing he got from her was weak and pained grunts.


    In the end, he picked her up, and she reacted to the act with pained whimpers but didn¡¯t resist or do anything else. He was a bit surprised at how easy and hard it was at the same time to carry her. He didn¡¯t know her exact weight but he remembered similar weights being a huge problem in his corner store time. That didn¡¯t mean that he didn¡¯t struggle at all at the moment, he was far from strong, but his Player boost served him well at the moment.


    Setting back to his cave he took his time to make sure he didn¡¯t slip or trip, though he took the more direct route to get back. Walking through the jungle he found that the animal life was more interested in him now than before. Before he was a single and healthy individual, now there was a wounded creature with him, probably sending off smells to their more sensitive noses. But to Sam¡¯s luck, his way of combat had never needed his hands, so he was just as dangerous and ready to go as before. Even though he was being severely physically drained from carrying her through the jungle, the animals were scared off by Force Launching some random rocks or sticks in their direction. Needing several stops and breaks on the way, he took a lunch break on the way, sharing some of his fish with her. She was too weak to even open her eyes but he put it in her mouth, letting her take her time. Very, very small pieces, as well as a few drops of water at a time. He didn¡¯t want her to choke after all the effort he was putting into getting her back. She ate and drank the minuscule amounts he gave her, although she probably used more energy to do that than she gained from it.


    During his lunch break, the island¡¯s weather decided to suddenly turn and open up a torrent of rain and wind. A rainstorm came from nowhere making visibility extremely low. He could still barely see the mountain as he neared it, so it wasn¡¯t critical but it was annoying. Now, instead of just carrying the Beastfolk, he had to do it while drenched. The only good thing was that some of the grime and dirt were washed off her passively, which was probably good for her wounds.


    The walk back took considerably longer than the walk to the camp he found her in. The many breaks probably didn¡¯t help time, but they helped his stamina considerably. As he got back to the pool in front of his cave, he decided to sit her down in the stream leading out from it. It wasn¡¯t in a comfortable temperature but as she had seemingly been locked up a long time, she was soiled in more ways than one. The rain had done a good job of getting this off her, and him, on the way, but it was still very much present. This forced him to get a little intimate in touching but he decided that the result was important enough to go ahead. It didn¡¯t feel comfortable doing this without consent but it was a necessity.


    In the end, he finally walked in behind the waterfall and placed her on his makeshift bed. She had been shivering for a while, which made a lot of sense as he was doing the same, even considering the heat he got from exertion he felt a bit cold in the wind when wet.


    Spreading out his many hands, he started several things at once, the most important was to get a fire going. This was done in record time as he was getting used to cheating with his screw-machine spinning Psyhand, using his other hands he picked in some food and water, doing his best to feed her a tiny piece at a time. As the fire started properly and lit up he decided to have a look at her wounds and at least try to clean them.


    Not having any wound dressing or any proper cleaning agents, he had a bowl of water and some moss... It was better than nothing but he didn¡¯t expect this to go fine without infection. Checking her body for wounds he used the damp moss to try and at least rub anything he could out of the wounds. This re-opened some of them due to his inexperience but at least he got them ¡®clean¡¯. He checked her entire body, having to move her to the sides and almost flip her around to clean the wounds on her back. Her eyes vaguely opened and looked in his direction as he did this, he used her brief moment of mental presence to explain to her that he was cleaning her wounds. He also used this time to feed her little, small pieces like before, as well as give her water. It felt like better timing than when she was out cold.


    A secondary effect of this was that he got a very good look at her. He was kind of surprised to notice that in addition to the russet fur, she had actual hair. Though lacking in lustre it seemed that it was strawberry blonde, having some hint of red or pink in it. It was long enough to reach past her shoulders being trimmed around her face. Her body was covered in fur, the russet red covering most of her, but from her cheekbones and down her face it was a creamy white. This white continued down her neck, chest, stomach and crotch, it continued on the inside of her thighs down to her feet. Her larger ears had a black line of fur along their edges, her eyes were as he saw earlier a purple/pink mix. Her tails looked large and fluffy, though still being wet and not maintained made them look somewhat scruffy, they had the same russet colour with white tips. He was fascinated by her hands, they had a human shape with fingers and everything, but there were still paw-pads, though not as large as on a dog they were still there. Her fingers ended up in sharp claws, he could see these being good for combat as well as things like climbing or taking down prey. Her digitigrade legs were kind of interesting, and her feet were more paw-like than human feet. All in all, she was pretty similar to what he¡¯d expect a fox person to be, he was just a bit intrigued having inspected one this close. Though it was all done in the sense of cleaning her wound and gauging her status, it was hard to not take a peek at certain other areas as he did so.


    In the end, he felt confident that he had done what he could. Not what was necessary, but what he could with his limited knowledge and extremely limited resources. The only thing he had enough of was the heat of the fire, food and water. So that¡¯s what he was going to do for now, keep her warm and dry, letting her natural healing handle itself, and keeping her going with food and water.

 Ch.037 - Thraka-Vrila

    As she was sleeping, he used this time to maintain his gear, getting it dried and more comfortable, making sure the armour was on him at all times he was not aware of her, just in case. But he also used some time just to try out crafting things. Rope was a problem, he had no idea how they made that. There were some twisting things, yes, but he couldn¡¯t figure it out, in the end, he decided that braiding was plenty strong, however, this made it problematic to extend the fibres he used when they ran out, they just didn¡¯t hold well enough. So no rope for him today.


    In her waking moments, though short as they were, she often repeated two words. Dran, and Ral. He had no idea what she meant but when she specified the words she seemed to accept food and water, nothing else seemed interesting. Through time and trial and error, it seemed that Dran was a request for food, and Ral was for water. He didn¡¯t know what they meant specifically but for now, he tried to make note of their rough meanings.


    The first night was calm, though he was surprisingly paranoid. She slept through the whole thing except the few times she woke, requesting food or water. Going right back to sleep after. During the following day, she mentioned another word, Druk. He had no idea what that meant. Using her extremely limited strength she did her best in trying to crawl out of the cave. He tried to put her back to bed but she was adamant. In the end, he helped her walk, supporting her as much as he could. She was much shorter than him, if she were to stand upright on her own he expected her to be somewhere around chest-high.


    Letting her guide where to go, though he did the heavy lifting, so to speak, she found somewhere to squat down with great effort before she relieved himself.


    Sam made a mental note that ¡®Druk¡¯ probably meant a variant of needing a toilet.


    This process continued for several days. He didn¡¯t have much else planned than checking out the island, but he kept around the cave instead. Fishing when food was nearing out, gathering firewood well before it ran out so he had time to dry it at least a little. And finding small things to occupy his time with. A lot of it was spent sleeping, and waking up as she mentioned one of her few words.


    He was incredibly bored, though one could argue that it was good to be bored at times, this was just annoying. He found her intriguing to a certain level but with her unconscious like that, there was not much he could get out of her. He checked her wounds every so often to see how they were healing. Most of them were healing surprisingly well, but a few started getting a bit nasty. He didn¡¯t have any cleaning agents or antibiotics or anything, he knew that some plants or flora could do something good for her but... he had zero idea which did what so he decided against it. It would probably just make things worse.


    The only thing he could do was to be a bit heavy-handed and clean that wound a bit harder, trying to not overdo it as he practically scraped the wound clean. It started bleeding again, yes, but from his own experience in the closest he had to this situation, it sucked there and then but it often got rid of the bad shit in there.


    Or he might be wrong and it was just a confirmation bias in his earlier years... The result was at least that the wound looked clean... ish...


    He spent a lot of time around the cave, just to stretch his legs. He missed his phone and access to the internet, which would have made the downtime much more bearable. There was a limit to how many times he wanted to fail trying to whittle some small figurine with a large combat dagger, or how clean he cared to get his weapons and armour. He often popped his head back into the cave to just see that she¡¯s still breathing, and if she wants or needs something. He placed a bowl of water and another one with some food next to her, in case she were to wake as he was out.


    At least he finally found a good way to tie the vines around his coconut canteen, so he didn¡¯t need a whole bag just for that. Working with some bark and thin strips of wood he got some simple scabbards going for most of his weapons, though he struggled with the Scimitar. The wider tip of the blade made finding out how to make the top part a bit harder, he vaguely remembered how it worked on the original scabbard but... not enough to replicate it. Since he had several days to work on this, he eventually found something that worked, even though it wasn¡¯t perfect, but he didn¡¯t consider anything he made to be perfect.


    Sitting and sleeping against the cave wall, the fire burning calmly, Sam woke up to the sound of a questioning rolling ¡°Brrr?¡± sound.


    Opening his eyes, somewhat startled, as it was a sound she hadn¡¯t made yet, he was doubly startled as he saw her sitting in the bed rather than close to comatose. She was looking around the cave with a very curious and questioning look, her purple eyes looking much more vibrant now. Her eyes locked with Sam¡¯s in a very strange way, he wasn¡¯t sure what to do with the situation as she made the questioning sound.


    ¡°Err... Hi... You¡¯re awake... that¡¯s good.¡± He calmed down as the shock faded, he felt relatively safe with his armour and gear in top shape, but he was still a bit uncertain about how to handle this situation. She should not be 100% yet, so if it turned bad he should have the upper hand.


    Her expression changed from quizzing to a happy smile, looking a mix of glad and content, her smile closing her eyes in a slow blink as she tilted her head. ¡°Lin gur. Lin shok zarvak, kirn var. Var vakra lin.¡±


    She seemed very happy about that statement.


    ¡°.... What?¡± Sam commented, thinking he knew the rough meaning behind perhaps three words, none of which was part of that sentence.


    She didn¡¯t seem to stop and continued with a longer string of words, seeming like she was explaining something, perhaps retelling things or trying to explain something to him.


    During her explanation she had a wide smile on her face, looking honestly happy, her twin tails almost wagging behind her as she did so.


    Sam had no idea what she was saying, but she looked happy and not aggressive, which was good in this context. He let her continue talking, though he opted to not nod or respond, in case he answered to something unknown. Not that he knew if not responding meant anything about what she was saying... he just didn¡¯t know.


    When her monologue of unfamiliar words finally stopped, she looked at him with large and expecting eyes. He had no idea what she wanted and decided to steer the conversation to something simpler.


    Sitting up properly he used his hand to gesture to her. ¡°What is your name?¡±


    As she didn¡¯t respond, and looked at his hand with an uncertain look, he pointed at himself. ¡°Sam. My name is Sam.¡± Putting pressure on his name, then he gestured to her. Repeating pointing at himself with his name and back to her with his questioning look.


    It took a few times for her questioning look to change into a smile. ¡°Dia!¡± Her tone was very happy and excited.


    Sam repeated it as he pointed at her. ¡°Dia.¡± Then pointing black at himself. ¡°Sam.¡± He wanted her to at least say it once, hoping that he didn¡¯t just get the meaning of pointing or something.


    Language was hard.


    ¡°Sa!¡± She exclaimed as he pointed to himself.


    ¡°No. Sam, SaM.¡± He tried emphasising the M at the end of his name.


    ¡°Sa!¡± She exclaimed again, her tails wagging behind her like an excited puppy.


    ¡°Well... I guess that Sa works as well.¡± He muttered to himself. It was close enough, perhaps she struggled with the M sounds? He had no idea but if she understood that they were talking with names, it should be good.


    ¡°Sa! Sa!¡± She repeated it almost as if she just learned a magic spell and wanted to try it out. Almost bouncing in excitement where she sat.


    He struggled a little with having someone naked like that shout his name excitedly. He also realised that he was considering her a person now, and not just some Beastfolk. Much like the two in the Brothel, there was something about communication.


    Remembering the two Beastfolk in the Brothel also didn¡¯t help his situation. However, he wasn¡¯t unknown to nudity it was just something popping into his mind.


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    ¡°Well, are you hungry? You haven¡¯t eaten much in a while, right?¡± He didn¡¯t expect her to understand, it just felt natural to say this as he got one of the bowls with fish in it with a Psyhand, handing it to her.


    As the bowl came flying in she was extremely surprised. To the point of getting startled as the bowl came closer, she jumped slightly which looked like it moved her in a way she shouldn¡¯t, based on how she grasped one of the wounds on her side. Sam realised that he hadn¡¯t considered how others would react to his telekinesis. Janik was used to it and he only spent time with him.


    Using a few seconds to calm down, she inspected the floating bowl, trying to find out how it worked. Her initial expression changed from a mix of surprise and fear to intrigue, poking the bowl with one of her fingers before turning to Sam.


    ¡°Sa shirin?¡± It was toned almost as if she was asking something. He recognized his name but he didn¡¯t know the second word.


    He instinctively nodded, hoping that she asked if it was him or something. To prove that it was him he picked up an empty bowl with one of his normal hands and then handed it to one of his Psyhands. To an onlooker, the bowl would just float out of his hands. He floated it around before it landed in his hand again. He repeated this with a random piece of wood so she wouldn¡¯t believe that this was only the bowls.


    Her eyes were wide and almost sparkling in amazement. She took the bowl from the air, he let go as soon as it seemed she had a grip on it. Though not heavy the weight moved to her hands as normal. Her eyes widened again and rather than eat she looked like she wanted to test as well. Picking some moss from the bed she held it out in the air, moving it around, almost as if she was looking for where the hand was or if it was to be placed in a specific location in the air.


    Sam used a Psyhand and took it from her, making sure to gently tug on it so she could feel that he had a grasp on it. As she let go and saw it float in the air, she let out a happy trill sound as she smiled wide.


    ¡°Sa!¡± She shouted out happily, facing the floating moss more than Sam himself.


    He couldn¡¯t help himself smiling at her excitement. He doubted that she knew how it worked, but as long as she understood that it was him, it was enough for now. She started eating the fish with vigour, as she stared at the floating moss, almost as if she expected it to disappear or do something.


    Sam was a bit confused at the situation, he had been considering this a bit during the last few days until she woke up, but there was a huge difference in the way she acted compared to the other Beastfolk he had fought before. He would have to inspect this more at a later time.


    After she had eaten more of the fish, she looked like she was handing the bowl off to the magical hand in the skies, and let out an excited squee-like sound as the bowl lifted from her hands. Looking around frantically she picked up some more moss as well as a stick, throwing them all in the air.


    Not being entirely prepared for that, Sam missed several pieces of the moss but caught some of them as well as the stick. She looked ecstatic at the floating pieces of debris but then noticed the ones that fell. She looked at him with an almost worried expression.


    He laughed, to her confusion. ¡°I just missed, that¡¯s it. Don¡¯t worry about it.¡±


    She tilted her head, seemingly trying to analyse the words. To make things better for her he used some Psyhands to pick them up, floating them up to the others. This brought her smile back as everything was now seemingly good.


    They continued this for a while more, she tried to find out where the things in the air were, trying to grasp them with her hybrid hands, naturally missing every time. Though once he grabbed her hand in a handshake, which startled her considerably. She let go of the Psyhand by shaking her hand out of the grasp, letting out a series of sharp Yap-sounds. This just caused Sam to laugh even more. She looked at him almost angry, but more confused and annoyed. When he was done laughing a few seconds later, he held his hand up with his palm facing her, motioning for her to do the same.


    As her hand and palm were up, he used his other hand to press against the palm of his hand, at the same time he did the same to hers with a Psyhand. It seemed to do the trick as she didn¡¯t freak out this time. Her eyes lit up in intrigue as this happened, pushing against it harder than he could push with one hand, having her push his Psyhand back. He could feel her paw pads and fingers as she did so, which was an interesting feeling. Trying to grab the Psyhand with both her hands, she looked incredibly puzzled and almost panicked as she caught ¡®something¡¯ with both her hands. She had caught the Psyhand as she wanted to, but now that she had it she was frantically looking around, trying to find out what to do with this invisible force in her hands.


    Letting out a drawn long annoyed and uncertain sound, she ended it with a dissatisfied grimace and ¡°Kirak.¡± Almost like she was moping that she caught something but didn¡¯t want to have caught it, like someone reaching out to get something and ending up with something weirdly disgusting on their hands.


    In the end, she just opened her hands, letting go of the force, he pulled the Psyhand out of her hands which took care of that situation, bringing her smile back again.


    After a while of Psyhand shenanigans, she got to her feet, a bit unsteady and shaky. Though she was better, having eaten and drank, she still hadn¡¯t healed completely. Almost falling over Sam reached out to support her. Grabbing onto his hands for support she smiled at him as he got up, helping her out of the cave they were in.


    Exiting out behind the waterfall, walking down the little path they ended up next to the pond of fish, there weren¡¯t many left in there but there were still a few they could see. She marvelled at them before they took more steps towards the jungle. She was leading where they went as he was just there for physical support.


    Now that she was awake, and even though she was still wounded, her step was incredibly light. The sound of leaves or sticks breaking came every few steps but besides that, he wouldn¡¯t even have known that she stepped at all. The paw pads on her feet might be part of that, or perhaps just her animal nature in how she moved. It was interesting to Sam who had to make a conscious effort to sneak through the woods.


    Continuing to support her, he heard that she had started making a purring sound as he held her shoulders, she supported herself against him. It caught him off guard when he noticed it. She was trusting him quite a lot in her vulnerable state, but then again he had been caring for her for a few days, so if he wanted to harm her he wouldn¡¯t have done that. Perhaps it¡¯s a cultural thing? Or a healing thing like cats are said to do?


    His uncertainty didn¡¯t stop, but the train of thought did as she stopped moving, causing him to have to make a hard step to stop himself from continuing forward and pulling her along. She bent down, placing her hands on the ground and surprisingly naturally she took a few steps on all four. Had he not seen her walk on two feet he would have thought this was natural for her. She walked over to a tree, sat down and started eating some plants near the base that he had never noticed before. Both her tails slowly waved back and forth as she consumed the mysterious plant.


    ¡°Oh... is that... like some medicinal thing?¡± He asked, for a moment forgetting that they only shared two words between them, which were their names.


    After having eaten a few leaves, she turned towards him.


    ¡°Thraka-Vrila.¡± Having said that she turned back to the plant and continued to eat.


    Sam sighed, figuring that naturally, she¡¯d reply in her language... He sat down on a nearby log after checking it for bugs, letting her eat and continue as she was. She was most likely much more knowledgeable about the flora on the island, so it might very well be some healing plant. He took notice of its appearance for later testing or gathering, but for now, he needed to find out what to do about the whole situation. She seemed tame enough but he didn¡¯t know what to do with her, nor what he was supposed to do on this island.


    [ Conditions met. ]


    ¡°Mother fucking now what?!¡± Sam exclaimed as the window popped up, losing his temper entirely, startling Dia enough to cause her to jump to the side, wincing at the pain caused by her movement.

 Ch.038 - Var lek!

    Dia looked at him confused, then looked around herself ready to go, but seemingly mellowed out as Sam didn¡¯t seem to react to anything around him.


    Looking at nothing, he stared at the System message that, on his mental command about finding out what this was, closed the Conditions met message and opened another.


    [ Player has earned the trust of the Beastfolk [ Dia ], Bonding is possible. ]


    ¡°What?¡± He turned to Dia. ¡°You trust me? You don¡¯t even know me?¡± He sounded oddly insulted like the message had told him that she hated his guts or something.


    Her ears lowered, her tail stopped swinging and her entire body language displayed uncertainty, a hint of fear and a submissive nature. ¡°Vrana Sa zarka? Var Frana?¡±


    The only part that Sam understood, was that it was a question, he got the gist of her body language but he had no idea what she asked.


    ¡°No... I mean... Fuck...¡± Taking a moment to calm down, he changed his mood. There was nothing bad about what the message stated, he was just so surprised at everything. He had known her for... almost some of today. Sure, she might have registered and seen him during the healing process and during that thought he realised what was going on.


    He had spent, in her mind, probably several days nurturing and caring for her. Though not wrong she might not have the same concept of time and it might have felt longer or shorter. In short, she knew he had been caring, nurturing, cleaning and feeding her during her healing. She might also have noticed him killing the Goblins and taking her out. He had no idea how much of this she remembered or even noticed, but it wasn¡¯t entirely uncommon for people in dire situations to latch onto the ones helping or saving them. Sam had read about firemen on Earth getting similar effects.


    Calming his voice, he turned towards her with a much better tone, just his anger disappearing seemed to help her body language. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯m not angry with you, I¡¯m just... surprised. You don¡¯t know me and now you trust me?¡±


    He knew she didn¡¯t understand any of it, but he was glad to see that his calmer talk did wonders for her.


    Her ears perked up, though her tails were still almost between her hind legs as she held herself low to the ground, only lifting her head quizzingly. ¡°Sa ''yap'' zarka?¡± The Yap sound she exclaimed when she touched the Psyhand was in between the two other words, making it seem like it acted as a word as well. Her language was confusing.


    Sam still didn¡¯t have any idea of what she asked, nor how to reply to it. If he hinted at either the positive or negative, he might be agreeing or denying something he shouldn¡¯t. The language barrier was an issue.


    Instead, he focused on the System window, wondering what the Bonding thing was.


    [ Bonding


    The Bonding is like a contract between two entities. Similar to, but not as powerful as the companion bond, the Bonding allows agreement of control between entities. Discussion of terms between entities is necessary.


    - The System will translate the contract and edits between entities. ]


    He thought he understood it, it was like a servant¡¯s or work contract of sorts, like she works for him in return for something. They needed to decide the limits of the job, so to speak. It made a lot of sense but he wasn¡¯t aware that the System had this kind of power over everyone. Though it made sense... Dia was created by the System much like Elara, it made sense that it could force whatever it wanted. Like the contract Janik set up earlier, it could probably fuck with the side not holding their side of the contract if necessary.


    However, this made him unsure. He already had a companion and he didn¡¯t know if he could care for two of them. The System information explained that this was not as powerful, so she would probably not be as happy to serve his tiniest whim as Elara was, she seemed to almost get happiness from just doing anything Sam told her to do... If nothing else having some contract going, if worded properly, would take care of the paranoia of getting attacked later.


    [ Display standard Bonding contract? ]


    The system was helpful, which put Sam a bit more at ease. Agreeing to it displayed a very wordy contract, he took a moment to read through it and it was simple. The basic rules listed one person as the boss over the other, the servant would do what they were told except for certain things which were listed. Anything could be edited, anything could be added or removed from both sides until they agreed.


    Sam looked at Dia, who also seemed to be looking into nothing like she was reading the same thing he was. Could she even read? Or perhaps it was displaying it differently to her.


    No, this was wrong, he couldn¡¯t bind someone to him just like that. Elara was a bit different as she was a Companion, she was created to serve, but Dia was a sapient creature, she could think, communicate and had her own thoughts and wishes... Or at last he assumed she did.


    ¡°Since you¡¯re healthy, you should return to your people.¡± Sam smiled in a dismissive tone, making a kind of shooing motion. He kind of liked having her around, she was amusing, cute and entertaining but he couldn¡¯t bring her into the world he was going into. He was going to find someone to ask some questions later, most likely ending in some level of murder. She might be used to hunting but since she was in a cage already she¡¯d probably die if she fought a Player.


    This snapped her out of whatever she was doing, her expression looked like she was about to burst into tears as her stance changed to be even lower. ¡°Lin kru var rin?¡± Her voice broke a little as she asked.


    ¡°I...don¡¯t know what that means. But you should be with your people, I think that¡¯s probably better. You¡¯re healthy enough to go back... I think, at least you¡¯re awake and moving. That¡¯s enough, right?¡± He wasn¡¯t sure of what he was even saying. But he felt it might be a smarter move than bringing her if nothing else. Having gotten to know her a tiny bit after caring for her for two days, he didn¡¯t want to see her get even more hurt. Going with him was probably going to have that happen.


    She looked like she was about to panic, looking back and forth almost like she was looking for something to help her situation. Stammering before she replied. ¡°¡®Yap¡¯. Var vraka lin. Miv lak shiv. Var lek!¡± Her tone was pleading, making this feel worse for Sam.


    ¡°Miv lak shiv!¡± She repeated the middle part of the sentence with almost teary eyes.


    This didn¡¯t feel good, it was clear she wanted to stay, but Sam was convinced this was just the Rescuers Syndrome playing tricks on her mind. After all, she could only have seen glimpses of him the last few days, and today it was just some parlour tricks and walking. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I think it¡¯s best that you go.¡± He tried to smile at her but it didn¡¯t feel right. ¡°Go!¡± He waved his arms in her direction to both signal her to leave but also perhaps startle her to start moving.


    ¡°Sa!¡± Dia again panicked a bit but ended up darting into the jungle. Sam was a bit sad to see her go, especially at that speed given her wounds were still healing, but he was glad that she¡¯d go back to her people. She would be safer and better there, he was also a bit surprised that she understood his meaning.


    Turning around he headed back to his little cave, to put his mind on other things he started planning what to do later. It was easier to find someone to talk to and interrogate during the night, especially if they walked around with torches. He actively focused on the upcoming task to make forgetting her easier. It shouldn¡¯t take that long, at least he hoped.


    It didn¡¯t take that long for him to come back to his little cave, after all, he supported a wounded person away from it, so there was a limit to how far they walked. Halfway expecting her to be waiting for him inside he was glad to see that she wasn¡¯t there. Letting out a relieved sigh he was glad that she had returned to her people. Changing his focus back to the coming night he checked the scabbards and his items, he wanted everything to be ready. Though he had done similar things naked with just weapons, he should be good now that he had all his gear back. He felt good about it, and thinking back to how he managed to take out the boss, he felt good about finding new uses for things. Though it was a highly specific and unique situation, it just proved that with some inventiveness, he could get further than just pure damage. He might have to invest more thought into that kind of thinking, the simple tests with poisoned needles earlier were a good starting point, but perhaps he should look into getting some acid from Earth if he ever got out of this place. It could prove very useful.


    The System still hadn¡¯t explained why he was here, or what he was supposed to do. The island had monsters, some ruins that Sam hadn¡¯t investigated yet but mostly it had other Players, most of which seemed fine with killing other Players. The System tended to give.... somewhat clear instructions on what was required to do this and that, so perhaps the island didn¡¯t have a quest or mission to complete and you were supposed to find an exit portal. Janik explained that some Dungeons didn¡¯t let you leave it until you either completed it or found the portal, so perhaps that was the deal here as well? Maybe they could leave whenever but only if they found the exit? Or perhaps it was like the Dungeons, they needed to go somewhere specific to trigger the quest. Stoking the fire to get it going, he had started heating some food but mid-heating his thoughts were pulled elsewhere. ¡°Sa!¡± He heard Dia¡¯s voice shouting for him outside.


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    Sighing he got up from the fire, he didn¡¯t want to get angry or yell at her, he wanted her to leave and understand it, which he knew was hard for several reasons. Exiting through the cave he saw her sitting on all fours with a dead bird on the ground in front of her, her fur had gotten dirty and he could see some of her wounds having opened again. As she saw him she nudged the bird forwards with her snout as she lay herself completely flat on the ground.


    ¡°Var kirn. Miv lak shiv. Var lek!¡± She nudged it again before she also nudged what looked like some random metallic trinket on the ground next to it. It appeared like she had gone to get something, showing that she was useful.


    Sam sighed, this just made it harder. She didn¡¯t return to her people but went to hunt and find the metallic thing. He wondered how he could force her to leave, somehow. As he was considering these things Dia picked up the dead bird and trinket with her hands and got up on her hind legs, trying to hand them off to the invisible hands in the air.


    ¡°Sa shirin!¡± Thrusting them in different directions, hoping to hit something. ¡°Ryth!¡±


    He still had no idea what she was saying, but he again got his name in the start.


    [ Beastfolk [ Dia ] wishes to form a Bonding contract. ]


    Being surprised at the window popping up in his field of view, it seemed like she had triggered it on her own. As he was thinking about it in a curious manner it opened up. Asking if he wanted to read Dia¡¯s amendments to the contract.


    Not managing to stop himself from wondering about it, it opened up to his surprised wide eyes.


    She had amended the contract down to ¡®Beastfolk [ Dia ] will obey Player [ Sam Carter ]¡¯. Everything else was removed, she was, quite literally, throwing herself at him without a single clause. If this worked like he thought before, he could ask her to run into a burning building and she would probably be compelled to do so. Of course, he wouldn¡¯t, but the over-dramatic thoughts came to mind during moments like these.


    ¡°A... are you sure?¡± Sam asked her, without expecting an answer. He mentally amended the contract to give her more self-autonomy and gave her the right to refuse orders and return to her people if she wanted to. He wanted her to be able to go back, let her refuse to fight and at least do whatever she wanted.


    Trying to be cheeky and add a message in there for her, failed. Trying to ask how she was feeling in the hopes of abusing the auto-translation was automatically removed before he finalised it.


    She looked startled for a moment as she suddenly stopped to put things in the air, staring at nothing for a few seconds before shouting ¡°Sa shuk, Sa marr, var lek!¡± with a strange urgency and demanding tone.


    The contract returned, boiled down to the same: Dia will obey.


    He couldn¡¯t, not, worry about all of this. One thing was the danger, almost illogically he wanted her to be safe even though she was a Monster in the Tower. But there were also other things like the total submission in the contract, it felt... too much. Spending some time thinking about this, the possibilities and dangers, seemed to have taken too long as Dia looked at him with worry in her eyes. Though he was still somewhat new at this Player business, the only Beastfolk he had interacted with were the ones he killed en mass in the Dungeon, the few he met at TAC or the village as they entered the 1st Floor, as well as the ones in the Brothel. And out of those his memory lingered on the Brothel first, but also to the scores he had cut down in the Dungeons.


    In the end, she seemed insistent and forceful enough to want to come with him and he accepted. Though the total submission didn¡¯t feel right, it wasn¡¯t like he had to abuse that power. He could just request or ask things rather than command or order, which should amend all of it. Also being able to give her specific permissions to break the contract should fix the issues, the main thing he was uncertain about was why she had so much trust in him.


    [ Contract formed with Beastfolk [ Dia ]. ]


    As soon as he accepted the contract the message popped up confirming their bond. Within a second her profile of data popped up.


    [ Dia - B-rank Beasfolk: Fox.


    STR 4


    DEX 14


    VIT 12


    SPT 0


    Level: 8


    HP: 54/140


    XP: 3/171


    Attacks


    [ Kick 50 ]


    [ Punch 42 ]


    [ Claw 50 ]


    [ Bite 63 ]


    Skills


    [ Beastfolk traits ]


    [ HP boost ]


    [ Martial Arts ]


    [ Damage boost: DEX ]


    [ XP cap ]


    Contracted to Player [ Sam Carter ] ]


    The first thing that stood out to him was how little XP she needed to level up, a total of 171XP needed to hit level 9. Another thing was that she apparently knew Martial Arts, but that was probably just a way for the System to list her beastfolk fighting style with claws and biting. Her health felt abnormally high for just level 8, but she did have a Health Boost skill as well as being B-rank, which seemed to help a lot. However, he did feel a bit inadequate considering she had four times the health he did... Also didn¡¯t help that without his armour, she could one-shot him...


    Checking out the XP cap details it ended up making a lot of sense.


    [ XP cap


    Due to being contracted to a Player, shared XP can only bring [ Dia ] up to 5 levels below the Player. ]


    Since he was Level 13 at the moment, she could be boosted to Level 8 at most. However, according to the scaling math for needed XP per level, she needed dramatically less XP than Sam did. Perhaps it was something related to her being a monster? It shouldn¡¯t be a problem keeping her levelled up as far as she could as he continued. Hell, one Player kill here would cap that instantly and still have some to spare... With that in mind, he brought up the XP share information and set it to 50% for now, once it hit the cap he could manage it later. He also did the same thing he did with Elara, having a small information window attached to his own Health Bar in his HUD, so he could see the important things about her right away.


    Once he was done with all of this, he finally took a proper look at Dia. She had sat back down on the ground on all fours, and both her tails were wagging fast and powerful enough to create a small wind for a few plants and leaves behind her.


    Holding back a chuckle, Sam couldn¡¯t help but think of her almost binary level of emotion. Only a few seconds ago she was on the verge of crying, sad and pleading. Now she looked nothing else besides happy. However, this did bring the awkward moment of; what to do now. Or rather, his plan for today didn¡¯t change but how should he explain that to her? How would she even react to fighting another player? She seemed relatively powerful, considering the lack of proper Player defences on this island, she could probably kill some of them easily, how was she even captured?


    Again his moment of thinking without reacting seemed to affect Dia, her tails had stopped wagging and her expression had changed to a mix of confusion and light worry. But as soon as he looked at her properly, this seemed to fade back to a satisfied smile. She almost looked like a pet waiting for a command or to be told what to do, she just looked content, seemingly having already forgotten her worry from 2 seconds ago.


    This was going to be strange for Sam. Elara was a bit different as she hatched for him, just wanting to be with him. But Dia had a language, most likely her own culture and experiences, family and friends. He knew none besides the language part but he still wondered what was going to happen from now on.


    Sam realised he had again gone into a spiral of thought, not paying attention to what was happening around him, he realised that as Dia had sat down leaning against his leg with a strange purr.


    Perhaps this wasn¡¯t going to be too bad.


    Heading back into the cave with her in tow, his food should be warm by now, he had to figure out how to explain things to her.

 Ch.039 - The quest

    Sitting around the fire in Sam¡¯s cave, they tried to communicate. As in, Sam tried to find a common ground they could try to begin with, but Dia let out the longest sentences of words he had no idea what meant. He got his name in there at times but nothing else. She looked happy, which was good, but he had no idea what was being said. He just assumed that, since the Bonding Contract said she¡¯d obey and be bound to him, the System would translate, and the translation would continue... But apparently not, it was just for the understanding of the contract which... was good but... now he was back to not understanding shit.


    He tried to explain things, but that just hit the same problem the other way, he did his best to use his arms or objects or mime. Having no idea where to even start he decided that they needed to go very specific. Trying to mime or example some specific object or event, and find a word for that. But that would produce other problems, if he were to point to a dagger and they decide a word, was that word for dagger, metal, sharp, tool or something else?


    Letting out a long sigh he decided to just let it come as it happened. He didn¡¯t care what happened to the people on this island either, hopefully, they could capture someone and ask them some questions. Picking up an item he asked what it was, and though he didn¡¯t have anything to write on he did his best to repeat it several times to try to have it stick. In the cases where he had several of the same thing, preferably different like fish bones and rocks, he asked several times to make sure the word didn¡¯t change. Things like Yes and No were luckily simple, it seems that they had the same head nodding and general body language for agreeing or disagreeing.


    This took considerable time, trial and error, and was most likely still filled with errors and misunderstandings. Pointing at stones he didn¡¯t know if the word meant the size of it, the material or just ¡®a rock¡¯. A lot of things he wondered about were things that he couldn¡¯t point at, making them problematic. He would have to just pick up words and try to say them to her later to see what she does. If he said a word which had her sit down repeatedly, that could mean sit, as an example. Though he doubted that he¡¯d remember all these words 10 minutes later, it was nice to at least get the smallest bit of insight into her language. It also made her ecstatic, picking up random things he hadn¡¯t thought of and saying words about them, like one of the coconut bowls, the problem was that he didn¡¯t know if she was referring to a bowl, the colour, the material or the texture...


    Nightfall had snuck up on them at some point, and though it was interesting and fun to try and learn things like this it was also not a quick ordeal. He often went back to try and remember the words for things he thought he had, only to fail more often than he got it right. The only thing he was sure about in the end was Yes and No, which was a Yip sound and a Yap sound respectively. Sounds he struggled to mimic but she seemed to understand the Yes and No words in English after some trial and error. Given that the words were simple sound bytes she didn¡¯t struggle with saying them. Meaning that if nothing else, they had the first step of communication down!


    Though further learning would have to wait, Sam got up and started gearing up. His arsenal didn¡¯t weigh that much but he still preferred to not have it strapped across his body, especially when considering that he made the scabbards himself. Since he already had the armour and smaller items on, the main thing he had to do was the weapons. Dia looked at him curiously as he did so, but since he picked up the weapons with his Psyhands she kept shouting ¡®Shirin¡¯, which made it sound like it was referring to his Psyhands or Telekinesis. Seemingly wanting to help she picked up other weapons in their simple scabbards and lifted them randomly in the air, calling for ¡°Sa shirin!¡±


    Perhaps that meant Sam¡¯s Telekinesis or something?


    He soon found himself ready and motioned for her to follow, heading in the direction of the camp he had been harassing as of late. She followed him curiously as he tried to explain that he wanted to capture one of them. Naturally, his explanation didn¡¯t do much, or at least he didn¡¯t assume that it did. Looking at him as he spoke it was at least as she tried to understand, but she kept to his side and kept herself rather close to him. Not close enough to be a problem but... it felt odd to Sam.


    They soon came closer, at least close enough that Sam chose to sneak rather than just walk normally. As he did so Dia seemed to understand it and started walking on all fours, any sound from her stepping disappeared completely as she started being mindful of where she stepped, she was much better at that than Sam was.


    It didn¡¯t take long before they spotted someone sneaking about, three men were walking in a group, one of which was carrying a torch. The next step was simple enough, he needed one of them alive, but taking two of them out at the same time as restraining one was... not easy. He could send Dia on one but he didn¡¯t know her capabilities yet. Luckily, he had a simple solution to things: eyes! He Force Pulse three eyes at the same time, which had to be split up for effectiveness, that should be plenty, with his armour he should be good.


    Not intending to wait more than needed, he floated up all his weapons at the ¡®last¡¯ of the three and in the same movement he triggered the eye attack on them all. All of them reacted as something pressed against their eye for a split second before the pulse activated, causing them all to scream out in pain, clutching their attacked eye. At the same time, Sam brought down all his weapons. One critical hit, the Vampiric dagger triggered and the man was instantly dead. The others turned towards the sound of their friend being shredded, but before he could move his weapons to the next target, Dia had sprung forward.


    She darted towards the man with the torch on all fours, jumping at him once she came into range, landing on him with her claws first she rode him to the ground, on the way down she bit deep into his shoulder and tore both her clawed hands out of him. This seemed to do considerable damage but he was still alive.


    ¡°Fuck, fuck! Get it off me!¡± He shouted in panic. The man behind him pulled his weapon but was stopped mid-draw by Sam¡¯s blade swarm, falling to the ground, shredded as the other man.


    Dia went in for another bite.


    ¡°Dia, stop!¡± Sam called out to her, this was a perfect moment to take advantage of, a wounded man knowing he was outmatched.


    To Sam¡¯s positive surprise, it seemed she understood enough of his order. She stopped her bite and took a few steps off the bandit¡¯s body, to make sure he didn¡¯t try anything Sam used some spare hands to take his weapon from him before he could draw it.


    ¡°The fuck-¡± He reacted to his dagger pulling itself out of its scabbard and joining the swarm of other weapons hovering menacingly over him.


    ¡°So-¡± Sam started, coming into view properly as he Psyhand-lifted the torch, getting a better look over everything.


    Though Sam was clean of blood, Dia was drenched having bit and clawed the man on the ground only seconds ago. ¡°-I have some questions I¡¯d like answers to.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, whatever you want, man. Just... don¡¯t kill me.¡± The man on the ground clutched the wound on his shoulder, close to his neck, shivering in fear of the situation he found himself in.


    ¡°Good, now, let¡¯s start with the fuck the deal is with this island. I was just transported here without a quest, and everyone is out to get me.¡± Sam heard himself sounding very annoyed, which wasn¡¯t wrong, he wanted to talk to people initially but had to self-defence them to death.


    ¡°N--No one told you yet?¡± The man stuttered as his expression mixed confusion with the already present fear. ¡°Boss said that you could get it from visiting... something, or have it shared with you.¡±


    This was weird to Sam, but somewhat made sense. If you¡¯re alone or one of few, you could get it if you survived enough to find whatever it was, or like now when there are a lot of Players you could just have it shared.


    ¡°Can you share it with me?¡±


    ¡°Y... yes... but Boss said I shouldn¡¯t, but...¡± The man seemed to want to do as he was told but the situation he was in was a bit...


    ¡°Give me a moment.¡±


    The man started looking at nothing at all, a standard expression when looking at the System menus. It took a minute until a window popped up for Sam.


    [ Shared Quest: The Island


    Conquer the island, and remain as the winning team.


    Reward: A powerful upgrade to your class or abilities.


    Do you wish to accept? ]


    It was simple, but also somewhat ambiguous. If the team leader lied or held things back, it could be abused. Perhaps that was what was going on?


    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.Mentally agreeing to accept the quest it triggered.


    [ Quest: The Island


    Survive the Island and become the dominant force.


    Dominant forces: 2


    Reward: A powerful upgrade to your class or abilities. ]


    The question was if this reward was singular or multiple, did everyone get it and if so... Why didn¡¯t they just consolidate the groups and win?


    It seemed like the System wanted them to kill each other and cause this chaos. But, it explained a lot. For example why there were multiple camps, if they were all one group then it would make more sense to consolidate their group. At least on an island this small, relatively speaking. It also explained why they sent out scouts or guards like this, if they all were friendly with each other, having a solid fence or just some guards could be plenty.


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t that mean that if everyone joins as one group, you win by default?¡±


    ¡°Y... yes.¡± The man replied without thinking about it. ¡°We considered that but... it seems everyone needs to be fine with this, and as long as there is one who doesn¡¯t agree... The System knows, And since nobody knows if the reward is singular or not...¡± He seemed honest as he rambled on, not wanting to disappoint the man seemingly holding 8 blades towards him in the air.


    ¡°We talked amongst ourselves and... many think the same thing but... The leaders don¡¯t want this, we think they are... a bit... you know...¡± He made circular motions next to his head with his finger.


    Sam nodded, he got what he meant and given that there are people who actively seek out PvP, it made a lot of sense. They might see this as a kind of haven where murder isn¡¯t just -not- frowned upon but accepted widely.


    ¡°More people arrive now and then, we all just... end up here. I just want to go home, man...¡± The man¡¯s fear had faded in favour of just depression.


    Sam was glad to have met someone who was not just some murderhobo, but at the same time, this could just be a clever lie. He didn''t trust him but would at least let him ramble on if he wanted.


    ¡°The thing lists 2 forces, who are they?¡± Sam commanded.


    ¡°There used to be four, it has also fluctuated a lot before it settled. The locals of the island had one, a Goblin, monster, Beastfolk like... your friend here, or something. It was killed. As for Players The Bloodfang Marauders that I¡¯m a part of, the one close to here. Kane, or ¡®The Butcher¡¯ as he liked to call himself, was leading us. The Shadowclaw Syndicate is led by someone calling himself ¡®Viper¡¯, and The Iron Reavers are led by some ¡®Ironhand¡¯.¡±


    The bleeding on his shoulder had stopped, but he was still clenching onto it, the pain was evident even though he looked stable.


    ¡°Liked? Was?¡± Sam asked, noticing the past tense of the words surrounding this Butcher.


    ¡°Yes, he was found dead in his hut, dirt in his mouth and throat torn apart. We don¡¯t know who did it and there¡¯s a slight problem finding out who¡¯s going to take over.¡± The man didn¡¯t seem uncomfortable talking about it. ¡°When they find out who it is, it¡¯ll probably rise to 3 again.¡±


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s practical. So... All I need to do is to get universally recognized as the dominant force on the island?¡± Sam barely realised something. It wasn¡¯t that he just didn¡¯t dislike killing Players, he might have come to like it. The extreme XP compared to other sources, normally having better than normal loot as Players would gear themselves.


    ¡°Well, kind of, yes. At least we think so. Most of us joined teams just to survive, but lots of people claim that once it¡¯s just this one boss or something, they¡¯ll challenge them and become the leader and win... or something. I... I just want to go home.¡±


    Sam pondered a few things. What defined if you were the top dog, so to speak? The System was probably the final arbiter, but if the locals were once a faction but weren¡¯t considered now. And that the system considered the leaders as equals which meant that he would need to be considered as a powerful force. He needed a reputation...


    ¡°I suppose I just need to kill the others like I did Kane.¡± Sam commented. He wasn¡¯t lying but the man didn¡¯t seem to entirely believe him.


    ¡°You... killed Kane?¡± His voice was filled with disbelief.


    ¡°I¡¯m wearing the armour, no? And who can shove dirt in his mouth enough to choke him, without getting attacked?¡± Sam felt a bit of pride in that one, it was his first clever and non-normal way of attacking that succeeded that well.


    ¡°Y... you are.¡± He didn¡¯t seem to have realised before now. Sam gave him the benefit of the doubt, both considering it ¡®his¡¯ armour rather than Sam¡¯s, but also not noticing it given the situation.


    Parts of Sam wanted to kill the man, he was a danger in the sense of information, but at the same time, he was perfect to make some rumours go, getting things started. The only danger he could pose was to hint where Sam came from, but that could be mitigated by just leaving in a different way than he was going.


    Sam would have to continue doing what he was doing, he had to make a show of things, so he would have to trigger them during a gathering, during the day or something. He didn¡¯t want anyone to join him but he needed to be recognized as the dominant force. Most likely killing the others.


    Moving his Psyhand with the torch over to the man, who winced in fear until the torch stopped. ¡°I suppose this is where we leave you, thank you for the information.¡± He smiled wide, this was mainly to play along with the rumour aspect of it, but it wasn¡¯t entirely acting.


    Instinctively the man reached for the torch and took it, Sam let go and left in the wrong way compared to where his cave was. Dia followed without question but seemed a bit surprised and confused about leaving the man. Though she didn¡¯t seem to question it.


    They ran into the forest, it took a minute for Sam¡¯s eyes to get properly used to the darkness again, he tried to not look at the flame of the torch and to hold it in a way so it made the smallest problem, but it still had a severe effect on his eyes. Dia, for some reason, seemed like she was worse for wear than he was, she struggled to run properly and almost fell over many times.


    ¡°Are... are you ok?¡± He asked her, using words he knew she didn¡¯t know. Though it seemed his worried expression said something.


    ¡°Var krin, var tan torka.¡± She looked hurt, which made sense as she probably was.


    Sam had no idea how severe her original wounds were. Her health was still 54 out of 140, which was relatively low all things considered, but it didn¡¯t seem like she healed like Players did. If she healed more realistically compared to Players, she might still have internal wounds or some of the blood she¡¯s caked in might be her own.


    Her steps became more unsteady as time went on, though the more he inspected her gate the more it looked like a mix of fatigue in addition to whatever pain she might have. Which made sense, though she had been resting the last few days she was healing during that time, which wasn¡¯t proper rest. He would have her rest properly when they got back.


    Squatting down he urged her to get on his back, she was pretty light so even his strength would be plenty, he already carried her once and it was going to be easier having her on his back than in his arms. She was confused at first but after some coaxing and leading with Psyhands, she found herself on his back, being carried back to the cave in a very roundabout way.


    As they arrived he decided that she needed to be cleaned before they could go to sleep. The stream was ever present, as was the waterfall, so this was not an issue. She looked a bit better having at least somewhat relaxed on the way back. He helped her into the water and she started scrubbing herself down with water and some moss to get the grime out of her fur.


    She looked at him as she sat in the little basin where the stream widened slightly. ¡°Kirn var tarn, var krin.¡± Her expression was slightly pleading, he wasn¡¯t sure what she wanted but given the situation, she might be too hurt to properly clean herself.


    This wasn¡¯t the first time he had cleaned her, but given her requesting expression it felt... different.

 Ch.040 - Second Camp

    ¡°What do you need me to do?¡± He asked her as he walked over in the water. Having already removed most of his clothing to clean it, it felt very different. Having already spent intimate time with beastfolk before, it was hard to put those feelings away.


    ¡°Ryn tarn var.¡± She had a requesting tone, not like asking him a question but more asking for something. As she was sitting in the water, trying and failing to reach her back with her hands, he took it as she needed help cleaning herself properly in the harder-to-reach places.


    He did his best to clean her fur, especially places like her back. It wasn¡¯t a problem as most of the gore was on her front side. Using water and moss he got it as clean as he could, accidentally putting too much pressure on things and had her wince at the sudden pain, having him ease up on the pressure. In the end, he found a good balance of enough pressure to clean but not enough to hurt her more. Her purring returned and save the odd errors in the process, she seemed to like it.


    She moved her tails to him as he was done cleaning, he took it as a request to have them cleaned as well. Given their fluffy nature, it could be that it was somewhat problematic getting through them properly, which wasn¡¯t an issue for him, manifesting Psyhands in addition to his normal hands made cleaning the rest of the places she struggled with, a breeze. Though she initially seemed startled when nonexisting hands moved across her fur, she was fine after confirming ¡®Sa shirin¡¯.


    After they were done, retreating into the cave they dried by the fire before going to bed. Realising that he only had one bed he opted to have her take it, as the wounded member of the party.


    As he led her to the bed she climbed into it, but as he left to sit down by the fire she let out a dissatisfied ¡®Yap¡¯. ¡°Sa sark!¡±


    Grabbing hold of his hand she pulled him into the bed, repeating the ¡®sark¡¯ word.


    He assumed it meant rest, sleep or just bed.


    Accepting to take the bed, he was tired after all, he lay down in the padding and got comfortable. It didn¡¯t take long for her to snuggle up against him in a ball like a pet wanting the warmth. He didn¡¯t mind, it felt rather nice being with someone all calm like this on the island, even though they couldn¡¯t understand each other.


    Tomorrow he would have to decide what to do, but for now, they could rest.


    Waking up the next day he found that Dia was still snuggled up next to him in a ball of sorts. She had a slight purring sound on her breathing, looking quite content. As he tried to get up she woke up, lifted her head and looked at him with sleepy eyes. She didn¡¯t say anything but got out of bed as Sam did, sleepily strolling outside.


    By the time he had reignited the fire, she came back in, looking a bit more awake, happily vocalising his shortened name. ¡°Sa!¡±


    He couldn¡¯t help but be affected by her enthusiasm as a smile drew on his face. A glance at his HUD also listed her health up to 63, so it seemed she had healed overnight! Though he didn¡¯t know how healing worked for Beastfolk. Taking a second glance at the rest of her statistics he saw that her XP had capped out at 171 / 171, since the contract they had locked her to 5 levels below him, it wouldn¡¯t trigger the level up.


    They spent some time eating and washing up, getting ready for a day without a plan.


    [ Quest: The Island


    Dominant forces: 3 ]


    A glance at the quest had lifted the number to 3, it was 2 when they spoke with the man last night. This either meant that the man had shared some rumours about Sam and got him recognized, or the Bloodfang Marauders had picked a new leader. In either case, this meant that he would need to take out at least two leaders, and most likely a gaggle of others surrounding them. He needed information, he had to wait for nightfall and skulk about again, this time around the other camps. The possibility of capturing someone for information was also promising, especially as the other groups would perhaps not know about Sam at all.


    The positive thing was that this gave him the day to try and communicate with Dia, though he hadn¡¯t been alone on the island that long, just having a friendly face to try and talk to was surprisingly nice. As they sat there, trying to learn more words, pointing at things they had at least two of to allow for a comparison explanation like parts of the body or items, the rain started falling outside. It was incredibly heavy and dense, much like he expected tropical rain to be, though the temperature still wasn¡¯t warm enough to make wearing pants, a shirt and armour problematic.


    She opted to sit next to him instead of across the fire, as pointing and examining became easier, at least that was the thought Sam had. He learned a few more words and found it interesting that he remembered the words he learned yesterday. Usually not being that good at remembering smaller things, he chalked it up to the System helping him or just a different motivation. She also kept referring to Sam as ¡®Zar¡¯, but he wasn¡¯t able to understand what this meant, he found it kind of weird how her expression changed when she said it, almost questioningly or like she was testing his reaction to it, looking slightly sad when he reacted with confusion.


    As the day dragged on, he noticed Dia acting a bit different. In the moments they didn¡¯t have anything specific to do, like talking, eating, making or preparing something, she would make a point of sitting against him. Either leaning against him or just lying on the floor with her tails draped over his lap. He found it strange and weird. Though this wasn¡¯t entirely uncommon for animals to do, at least as far as he remembered dogs growing up, given that she was sapient and humanoid, it came with strange undertones. She had known him for only a few days, so it had to just be some animal instinct of gratitude.


    Nightfall was creeping in, it got dark fast on the island so in good time before that happened they set out. He had a rough layout from when he scaled the mountain, so he knew roughly where to go. Gearing up, confirming that Dia¡¯s health had increased since last night once more, they set out right as the rain stopped.


    Trekking through the jungle was not a huge problem, his Player stamina made it about the same as walking across the city before he awakened, so though it would tire him eventually he was amused at how much better even his meagre Stamina made him than a normal person. He remembered the chaos surrounding most competitive sporting events when the System first came to Earth. Given their power boost, they were instantly banned from normal competitions, but people wondered just how different they were, so some special competitions allowed both to go against each other. And... as Sam experienced first-hand with the intruder at the corner store... There was no chance for a normal person to go against a Player, at least unassisted.


    Since they were going to one of the further away camps, it took a while to get there. Especially since they were sneaking the whole time. Though Dia was extremely adept at it, Sam needed to make a more conscious effort. They could, in theory, have just walked over there and started sneaking once they got there, but since he didn¡¯t know exactly how far they spread out, or if they¡¯d pass anyone on the way, it was safer to just expect them anywhere.


    After a considerable time of sneaking in the night after it fell, Dia suddenly stepped in closer, pulling his hand to make him stop.


    ¡°Var fruk shan.¡±


    He knew that ¡®var¡¯ was a reference to self, like ¡®I¡¯ or ¡®me¡¯, ¡®fruk¡¯ meant nose... or perhaps smell? It at least referred to the nose or sense of smell somehow, though he didn¡¯t know what ¡®shan¡¯ meant, he understood it as her smelling something. Given that she stopped him and they were sneaking, she probably smelled someone or something they should be wary of.


    He stopped as she requested, letting her take the lead. Though it was a bad situation, he loved that they were able to at least very, very crudely communicate. It was heavily contextual still but anything is better than nothing!


    She led them forward, taking a sharp turn to the side before continuing around something he didn¡¯t perceive. Often stopping to smell the air, ears twitching as she pointed and tried to explain something with her hands, using a sign-language-like thing he had never seen before. In the end, she managed to lead them behind two men who were hiding behind a boulder, looking the other way.


    This was an amazing event, not only were they turned away from them but, Sam and Dia¡¯s crude communication worked fine! They did have their weapons drawn but that wasn¡¯t a problem yet.


    Sam pulled out his weapons, he used spare hands and Energy to Force Pulse their eyes, as it¡¯s a good tactic so far, before he sent the weapons flying towards one of the men, given the time he had to line up the attacks there was zero chance for him to survive. Many of his attacks became critical and though there was no triggering of anything meaningful the man fell before he knew what happened.


    The other man turned towards the sound of his friend being cut but didn¡¯t seem to properly be able to notice what it was before Dia landed on his side, forcing his body into the forest floor. She bit the wrist of the hand holding the dagger, forcing him to drop it with a pained yell. His vision seemed to return shortly after as he started pleading for his life. Dia seemed to understand that Sam wanted him alive, as she stopped attacking at that point, after kicking the dagger further away, snarling at the man she was now standing on top of.


    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I think. Just.. don¡¯t kill me..¡± The man hadn¡¯t seen Sam yet, he was looking straight at the angry Beastfolk standing on him, both his hands up in a defensive position. Looking around frantically he saw his dead friend and panicked more.


    ¡°No, stop, please. I... What... what do you want?¡± He panicked, seeming to struggle with knowing what to say.


    Sam assumed this was a response to knowing that the Beastfolk didn¡¯t speak English.


    ¡°I want information.¡± Sam chimed in, having the man¡¯s stare snap at him.


    ¡°Oh, you... She.. she¡¯s with you? Thank fuck.¡± His panic calmed down considerably, it seemed having some form of communication was helpful.


    ¡°She is, yes. But so are these.¡± Hovering his weapons over to the downed man brought back some of the fear. ¡°Now, I wonder about your camp and your leader. Please share anything you might think is interesting.¡± Sam smiled as he crouched down out of reach of the downed man, though with Dia standing on him, his bleeding wrist and the floating weapons were more than enough to keep him down.


    The man rambled on, explaining and answering anything Sam asked of him, with the only request that he let him live once he was done.


    He explained that the closest camp to here was for the Shadowclaw Syndicate, their leader, Viper, was a mage who specialized in electricity. He got his nickname for his swift and sudden attacks, ¡®attacking like a viper¡¯ before most people could react. Sam knew that spellcasting took a brief few seconds, this meant that this Viper either had some casting-boosting skills or was just that good. In his panic, he just kept sharing anything Sam might want to know, though the only interesting part was that Viper was fast in combat, and electric attacks seemed hard to defend against given how most organisms¡¯ nervous systems were particularly vulnerable to electric attacks. Blocking with a shield or armour could still have you affected.


    The rest of the information was camp-related, though located differently they followed a similar structure and concept as the Bloodfangs. Most of the people there weren¡¯t there by choice, just being pulled into this place by the System and from fear of getting murdered or fed to some creature, they joined to at least live... Most there had killed in the sense of survival, but they had an understanding of the others being in similar situations.


    This sounded more and more like the leaders, and the twisted individuals who liked this kind of thing, being the main problem. Most of the people were just random men and women roped into this by the System.


    ¡°If I¡¯m to kill Viper, what would be the best way of doing that?¡± Sam asked bluntly.


    The man¡¯s eyes widened a bit as he processed the situation. ¡°You... you can do that?¡± There was a strange hope in his eyes. Sam expected him to be defiant about that but he looked surprisingly on board.


    ¡°You¡¯re... ok with that idea?¡± Sam confirmed, wanting to make sure.


    ¡°Well... he doesn¡¯t exactly treat us well.¡± Reaching for his crude armoured vest, stopping his movement as Dia reacted he made an open hand motion before he continued, ending up pulling his vest aside and showing a nasty scar. It looked like a lightning bolt etched into his chest, having burned the skin enough to engrave itself in his body. ¡°I tried being defiant when I was taken into the camp the first day... I... learned my place...¡± His eyes lowered just thinking back before they rose again to meet Sam¡¯s.


    ¡°Most of us just want off the island, sure... there are some fucked up people who like killing but... We just want to go home...¡±


    ¡°Well, that makes things easier.¡± Sam responded. ¡°Then how would I go about killing him?¡±


    ¡°C... can... can she get off me first?¡± He nodded at Dia who still looked like she was ready to go if he just twitched wrong.


    Sam nodded, the man had a point. ¡°Dia.¡±


    As soon as he said her name she slowly stepped off the man, not turning to Sam before she was out of the man¡¯s reach. She seemed to be quite aware of the danger of looking away while in an enemy¡¯s range. Sam smiled and gave her an approving nod even though it felt like calling off an attack dog, she seemed to enjoy the response.


    The man sat up and inspected his wrist wound, it had stopped bleeding but still looked like it could get severely infected if not cleaned. The Player Constitution would probably help him, but it still looked bad.


    ¡°Viper is the attack first, ask questions later kind of man. Makes it a bit hard to talk to him. He sleeps in a cave that¡¯s both guarded and locked up, I don¡¯t even know what it looks like in there. I think the best option might be sneaking up on him somehow, or publicly challenging him.¡± The man seemed uncertain, he was on board with the idea but seemed to struggle with finding a good way to make it easier.


    ¡°Will that work? Challenging him?¡± Sam didn¡¯t feel confident doing that, but it was at least an option.


    ¡°He¡¯s an arrogant and proud man, if you talk shit to him at the same time he will most likely want to prove you wrong.¡±


    This had Sam consider a lot of things. The best for him would be some surprise attack, safety and whatnot. But if it came to that then a challenge is a possible backup. Electric attacks were a problem, any attack could be like getting tased, and tasers were effective for several reasons. He wanted off this island as well, and if this man went back without his friend, evne if he lied and said that it was one of the other groups, they would be on higher alert.


    The best might be to go right away, which was a terrifying sentence. But it felt appropriate. If nothing else he could scout the area, Viper, and then head back.


    ¡°Where¡¯s the camp? Is Viper there now?¡± Sam asked the man.


    ¡°Oh, if you go that way, you¡¯ll get there in less than half an hour... or so...¡± He pointed in a direction and Sam could understand his lack of time management, it wasn¡¯t easy without technology keeping track for you. ¡°And I think he might be there? He was there before I set out at least. You¡¯ll recognise him right away if you see him.¡±


    Sam again considered this, should he go right away he might get the drop on him, but he wasn¡¯t entirely sure about how to do things. The more he thought about it the more he felt like it was a good idea to go now and get some intel. Though his armour might stand out, nobody knew him so perhaps he could get in a first move through pretending to be a recruit that just got some neat loot?


    ¡°You might want to stay here a while.¡± Sam commented to the man. He had decided to go if for no other reason to scope out the place. Worst case scenario they can just run and come back later.


    Getting Dia¡¯s attention, Sam started jogging in the direction the man pointed, moving through the thick jungle for a few minutes, covering some of the distance before he started sneaking again. Dia seemed to understand what was going on, running on all fours as they made their way and changing her pace once Sam started sneaking.


    Sneaking the rest of the way it took a while before they, or at least for Sam to hear things going on. He wasn¡¯t stopped by Dia so she probably didn¡¯t notice anyone hiding. Luckily enough there wasn¡¯t anyone who noticed them, or at least nobody paying them any attention as they neared some bushes and trees leading into the clearing of the camp.


    The camp itself was very similar to the earlier one, just without the peninsula in the opening of the 9-lake, completely landlocked they had a more roundish shape to their camp. People wore mostly leather or some remnants of modern clothing, everyone was armed with some simple weapon, and there were tents, boxes and stacks of wood.


    And there he was, the man who stood out like a sore thumb. By modern standards, he looked surprisingly normal, decently muscular, somewhat slender, with short brown hair, perhaps a bit dirty. He wore mostly the same leather clothing as everyone else, but his main difference was the teal blue robe.


    Sam and Dia observed him for a moment as he moved around in the camp, he walked about, talking to the men. Sam couldn¡¯t hear what he said and even if Dia could; she couldn¡¯t translate. Sam waited for an opening to do something, alternatively for some good info for a later plan.


    Even though Sam was hiding in a bush, looking at them through its branches, Viper¡¯s eyes suddenly snapped to the side, locking with Sam¡¯s.

 Ch.041 - Annoyed

    Viper¡¯s stare was intense, it was like he knew exactly where Sam was hiding. He pointed in Sam¡¯s direction and said something. Sam knew that he had two choices. Fuck off or fess up and take control of the situation.


    If he ran, that would probably make them raise the alarm, chase them, look for them or at least increase security. If he got up and challenged him or at least tried to abuse the situation, he could at least have a chance. There had to be a reason for how he could suddenly notice him like this, it wasn¡¯t sound related as Sam had just been sitting there for a while, there was no chance he saw him through the brush, at least logically... He must have some skill or ability that allowed him to sense them. Was it an extension of the electrical thing or just a sensing ability?


    Making a ¡®wait here¡¯ signal to Dia, hoping she¡¯d understand he got up from the bush, proving his presence and stepped in like he owned the place. He wasn¡¯t a good actor but it had worked before.


    ¡°And, who the fuck are you?!¡± Viper commented loudly, enough to be heard across a large area of the camp, drawing proper attention to the fact that something was going on here.


    ¡°I¡¯m someone with information.¡± Sam replied, deciding to leverage some of his info to try and get closer. If he could get an opening, a moment of weakness, perhaps he could just take advantage of that.


    Viper walked closer, even from a distance, Sam could feel pressure from the man, almost like the air became denser suddenly.


    ¡°And what kind of information is that?¡±


    ¡°Oh, it would be dumb of me to just share that without discussing a reward, no?¡± Sam didn¡¯t lie here, his past had taught him the value of proper rewarding, as well as bargaining when your life is on the line.


    ¡°And is that related to your hiding friend over there?¡± Pointing at the bush they came from he had apparently noticed Dia as well.


    ¡°No, not really. I have information about the Bloodfang Marauders.¡± Sam replied, trying to pull focus back on himself.


    As Viper was considering a response, Sam was looking around for options of what to do. Viper was standing not far away from a table with things on it, among those things was a crude meat cleaver. Expanding on his Area, Sam found that he could reach it with two Psyhands and pick it up. He could use this to either create chaos and an opening or try to pit them against each other.


    Grabbing it with the needed Psyhands to lift it, in one movement he lifted it and Force Launched it towards Viper.


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    Sam did his best to repress a smirk as the cleaver landed in his side, doing surprising damage for being a shit-tier weapon. The man didn¡¯t look too wounded either, hinting that he had a substantial health pool compared to Sam.


    ¡°Who the fuck threw that?!¡± Viper shouted as he turned toward the side the cleaver came from and locking his eyes with three men standing in the area it could have been thrown from.


    ¡°I... I don¡¯t know, Master.¡± One of them pleaded in response. ¡°It... it just flew on its own.¡±


    Viper pondered for a second before he looked back at Sam. ¡°This was your doing, wasn¡¯t it?!¡± Using the clever to point at Sam.


    Sam had a moment of crisis, he caught on rather fast, but he had to keep the lie going.


    ¡°How the fuck would I do that? It¡¯s all the way over there.¡± He commented, trying to look insulted that he was blaming Sam.


    Tapping into being insulted that he caught on so fast, he hoped that this worked out. Sam was actually decent at lying, learned from experience.


    Pondering this for a brief moment, Viper started a slightly tilted nod, seeming to agree with Sam¡¯s logic. Turning back to the men on his side he aggressively pointed at them with the cleaver, tines of electricity arced off him into the air with small snapping sounds.


    ¡°You don¡¯t think I know how some of you feel about me?! You petty fuckers came to me, I gave you everything you needed and this is how you repay me?!¡±


    Sam had no idea what had gone on in the camp, but based on what the man they spoke to before mentioned, and just this scene, he could guess.


    If there was a chance for any internal chaos, it was quelled by his electrifying display. Repeating his throwing of an object at Viper, he threw a dagger at him from the side. It didn¡¯t land as well but did hit him, and also taught Sam something valuable.


    As the dagger soared through the air from the table to his side, passing through the electric field Viper was producing, as it impacted him there was a spasm alongside the pained shriek that followed. The spasm was very similar to being lightly electrocuted, like someone touching a live wire from a house.


    He was not immune to his own lighting.


    The more Sam thought about it, the more that made sense. If this is magic or some other ability, mages could set themselves on fire, or drown themselves, depending on their spells. So why would Viper be immune?


    Though that was good to know and could be a good way of attacking him, it would probably not work twice.


    ¡°Who the fuck did that?!¡± He turned around and looked in the direction of the dagger, again there was someone there, his yell earlier had people surround the area, after all.


    But, again nobody took the blame for it.


    His anger flared up, he looked like he was about to explode, needing some target, someone to blame. Sam took this moment to take a few steps closer, just so he wasn¡¯t at the end of his Area. In case he found the opening he needed to attack.


    Viper charged up a lot of energy in the dagger he picked up, it started glowing from the heat of the electricity bundling inside it before he threw it at the man he thought responsible. The dagger hit him in the chest and burned, singed and seared its way into his chest, the residual electricity sparking from the metal into the body triggering some spasms. The damage from the dagger might not have been enough on its own, but the extra heat made this substantially worse.


    The ordeal, once the dagger landed, took a few seconds before life left his eyes and he fell over. Every sound in the camp faded to a deadly silence, nothing except for the wind could be heard.


    ¡°Anyone else?!¡± Viper shouted out challenging as he pointed around accusingly with an unhinged expression.


    His men took a few steps back when they were pointed at, and Sam got a good look at why the man in the woods was so on board with taking Viper down.


    Though he looked unhinged and chaotic, Viper had stopped letting off the passive energy around him, seemed that he recognised the possibility of that being used against him, removing that option from Sam¡¯s list.


    Viper used a moment to process everything before he turned towards Sam with crackling fury in his eyes. ¡°Now, the fuck information did you... No..first... Get your friend out of that bush before I burn it to ash!¡± His cleaver-pointing changed from Sam to the bush where Dia was hiding.


    Sam really didn¡¯t want Dia to show herself, he was glad that she understood to remain hidden, but seeing a beastfolk could make things worse... Or perhaps better? If they thought he was some beastmaster class or something, would it make it easier to hide his telekinesis?


    Well, it didn¡¯t matter, he had to do something, and trying to keep her hidden when he knew she was there, especially when he looked this ready to go, was probably going to get her attacked.


    ¡°Dia, come!¡± Sam shouted at the bush with a ¡®come here¡¯ wave. He turned back to the people of the camp to check their reactions, if it looked like anyone was going to attack, he would beat them to it.


    She did as told and got up and walked out of the bush before she walked towards Sam. Staring down the group as she did as requested, Sam didn¡¯t get more of her expression or what she did before he turned.


    The group started murmuring, he couldn¡¯t hear what they said from the distance, but Viper looked like he relaxed a little. Several others had pulled weapons and didn¡¯t seem happy that a Beastfolk was walking into the village.


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.¡°Oh. You got yourself a pet? What are you, some beastmaster class or something?¡± He didn¡¯t look entirely surprised.


    Sam was relieved, it seemed that his initial idea worked, though, in Viper¡¯s defence, Sam would most likely have assumed the same.


    ¡°Something like that.¡± There was no need to confirm or deny anything, the vague confirmation or denial would probably be plenty.


    ¡°Huh. It looks like the other vermin we used for target practice.¡± Viper chuckled, not considering the beastfolk as living creatures at all.


    Sam had problems commenting against it, considering the micro-genocide he was part of when farming the Beastfolk dungeons before.


    ¡°Though... two tails... that¡¯s kind of rare, no?¡± He tilted his head slightly to the side as he pointed in Dia¡¯s general direction with the clever in hand. Thinking about something for a second he turned towards the crowd around him. ¡°Didn¡¯t one of you fuckers say that we caught something two-tailed a while ago?¡±


    It was silent for a moment before one man hesitantly responded. ¡°Y-yes, Sir. It fought harder than the others, we think it might be a higher Rank or something. The first one we saw with two tails, we-¡±


    He was interrupted by another man who joined the talk, a bit more energetically, like he wanted part credit for responding. ¡°Yea! We caught her in a cage in the old camp, but...¡± Looking around a bit confused. ¡°Now that I think about it... I think we sort of forgot it... or did it die?¡±


    Viper chucked. ¡°Well, doesn¡¯t matter, if it¡¯s the same one, consider it a gift from us.¡± Placing the flat of the cleaver against his chest he made a fake bow, almost like he meant it genuinely. ¡°Now that you have been rewarded, share the fucking information you have before I use you, both of you as targets.¡± His tone shifted from almost polite to fuming as soon as he hit the swear word.


    ¡°The Butcher, or the fuck he called himself, the leader of the Bloodfangs, is dead. Not sure if someone has taken over yet or not.¡± He left out all the good details, he expected follow-up questions. He also knew that the quest log had gone back to listing three Dominant forces, but he didn¡¯t know who or what that was.


    ¡°Oh, interesting.¡± Viper¡¯s voice had softened considerably since a few seconds ago. The group around him murmured in response. ¡°I heard that was the case, but it sounded too dumb, nobody over there had the balls or strength to take him out.¡± He scratch his head with the dull side of the cleaver as he looked to the sky.


    This was good news to Sam, if he was correct it meant that everyone else was an easier target, if it came to that. He could just straight up take the credit for killing him, after all, it was true, but that could put Viper on the defence, someone powerful enough to kill the Butcher could possibly pose a danger. Though Sam didn¡¯t know how powerful Viper was, he didn¡¯t want him to defend more than needed.


    ¡°How did that happen? Did you have anything to do with it?¡± Viper asked the somewhat logical questions, having been spot on in most of it so far.


    ¡°Nah, I think he would have killed me if I got close... Though I did hear he had trouble breathing sand.¡± Again not lying, he told only the truth. The reason he had to be clever in how he killed the man was just that; in close combat, he would most likely have killed Sam in a few moves at most. Especially since the man wore Sam¡¯s armour at the time.


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s good news! Having it from different sources validates it more.¡± He seemed honestly happy about this detail. Based on his comments he already knew it but validating things from various sources was always a good logic.


    ¡°Now, the question is-¡± He again looked at Sam with an accusting expression. ¡°Which side are you on?¡±


    ¡°Well, not the Bloodfangs¡¯¡± Sam commented dryly, he had plenty of honesty there. ¡°They found me on the beach a few days ago, fuckers caged me up and were going to feed me to some beasts they had, I managed to get loose and ran into the woods.¡±


    Viper just had an ¡®and then?¡¯ expression, seeming to want a proper answer.


    ¡°I¡¯m on my own, of sorts. Being alone on this island seems... dangerous... So anyone willing to take the fight to the Bloodfangs sounds good.¡± Again Sam used the dumb little fact of not answering properly but also baking in truths, it tended to make your voice sound more real for those who knew how to pick up on things.


    Viper nodded with several uh-huhs, many more than he needed. Almost like he was making a point out of it. ¡°Then let¡¯s get you signed in!¡± Turning around towards the group of people behind him they started roaring and cheering, several men ran in the same direction and everyone was spreading out a bit more.


    Sam walked in closer, with Dia in very close tow. It seemed his bluff of joining them could have worked, he was still on guard in case this was just a ruse to turn everything on him. He got a slightly better view of the camp the more he stepped into it. It was very similar to the Bloodfangs¡¯ and to be honest, it was somewhat limited to how different a camp like this could look. Tents, fires and stuff were strewn about, it seemed to have started with a single fire and perhaps grew outwards from there, getting an extra table, tent, box or whatever when necessary. No proper reasoning as to what was where, at least not that Sam could see. But it didn¡¯t take long for him to see what the commotion was about.


    The group had dragged a naked man, tied up and gagged much like Sam was a few days ago, from a cage and dropped him on the ground. The Viper walked up next to him and pointed at him with the cleaver. And in a dramatic pose and voice, he ordered Sam.


    ¡°Prove that you¡¯re game, kill this man.¡±


    Looking up at Sam with pleading eyes, the man requested mercy without saying a single word. This also had Sam wonder what he should do. On one hand, he could just kill him, the tied-up man on the ground had no value to him, but it seeme a bit cruel. That also had him consider the men he had just butchered in the jungle, without confirming if they were on board with things or not. This train of thought was derailed due to the urgency of the situation.


    ¡°You want me to just kill him? Not knowing what he¡¯s done, who he is or anything?¡± The question was more to buy time to process the situation than it was about him actually caring about any of those.


    ¡°Yes, if you want to join us, you need to get used to listening to your betters. Me. You should do what I tell you to do, as I tell you to do them.¡± Viper took a few steps closer after explaining, stopping several steps away from Sam, out of reach of any swing of a weapon.


    ¡°Now. Kill. This. Man.¡± In a dramatic voice, he put pressure on every single word with a solid pause between them, putting emphasis on what was said.


    ¡°Should I use your cleaver... or... is there any special way you want this done? Slow? Fast?¡± Again Sam was stalling, and he could tell that Viper realised.


    ¡°I don¡¯t fucking care, either you kill him now, or you take his place. You have plenty of weapons, use those.¡± Viper gestured with the cleaver to the bunch of weapons attached to Sam¡¯s body.


    Viper had a good point, it wasn¡¯t like Sam was unarmed, but rather the other way around, he might be overgeared for this.


    Processing his next step he slowly pulled the Moonblade, if he went through with this a heavy scimitar would do the best job, given his position and lack of dodging abilities, a critical hit with it could possibly do it in one hit.


    But Sam had a better idea.


    As he was walking over to where the man was lying, he saw more items on different tables and boxes around. Psyhand picking up a crude stone hammer, which was just a stone on a stick, threw that at Viper as he walked closer to the man on the ground.


    The hammer hit him but seemingly did zero damage, it still had Viper trigger something fierce.


    ¡°NOW WHO THE FUCK IS DOING THIS SHIT?!¡± He turned around and tines of electricity arced from his body into the air, the ground and anyone slightly too close.


    This was what Sam was waiting for, pulling all his weapons as Viper turned around, ignoring the awe and reactions he got from everyone around them as his 10 weapons started floating on their own, the Moonblade included. He sent them all towards the unaware leader.

 Ch.042 - Var Fruk

    The people standing in a rough circle around, expecting Sam to execute the prisoner, gasped and reacted not only as the weapons started flying, but as they all impacted their leader.


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Shadow Strike triggered, target is blind for 1 second. ]


    Sam was ecstatic, the two weapons that critically hit were the Moonblade and Shadow Fang, his two most damaging weapons. On top of this, he had a whole second of blindness for a second attack.


    As the weapons landed they seemingly did tremendous damage, an absurd amount of blood was drawn from the wounds across his body and he looked incredibly damaged. Falling to his knees for a moment as he clutched his eyes with one hand and towards his back with his other. Having no idea if the electricity surrounding Viper¡¯s body was doing anything or not Sam pulled his weapons around for a second go.


    Before he could land his attack, Viper pulsed a powerful energy from his body. In a split second, faster than Sam¡¯s second attack, a pulse of electricity expanded from the man¡¯s body. Sam didn¡¯t get a chance to react until it washed over him with extreme force. Not only did this lift him off his feet, but it felt like having several electric cables poked into his body at the same time.


    [ Armour, Defence 40 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 15 / 35 ¨€¨€¨€???? ]


    [ Failed saving against status: Electrified. ]


    [ Electrified.


    A target suffering from this status will find fine and dexterous movement (like attacking, casting spells or hitting moving targets) problematic. ]


    The damage was substantial, at least to Sam. He couldn¡¯t take more hits of that. If this was his power level then just one more spell could be it. Suddenly remembering that he had a level banked up, it had been in his field of view so long that he had forgotten it, in panic he put the point into Vitality, he needed more HP.


    [ HP: 40 / 40 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€ ]


    He was glad to see his health bar back full, but also to see it a bit higher, even only by that little. Although he was feeling much better, the status effect didn¡¯t go away with the level-up, only the internal damage. In Viper¡¯s defence, this was a good status effect to put on people, making it hard to retaliate or move properly was just what he expected from a lightning mage. However Sam had a boon in this case, he didn¡¯t need to move to use his abilities.


    Getting to his feet, Viper looked around almost like he managed to rub away whatever was in his eyes. The group around him was panicking, several men lay on the ground dead, many others had problems moving and were struggling to even stand upright, and the ones who were out of range seemed to wonder what the fuck they would do.


    Dia looked to be severely hurt, spasming on the ground next to Sam. Her body was much more agile and physically tuned than Sam¡¯s, perhaps that made it hit her harder? She also didn¡¯t have any armour.


    Sam worried even more once he saw her HP having dropped to 10 / 140. As she looked at him with pleading eyes and a pained ¡°Sa!¡± it just made it worse.


    ¡°You cheeky fucker, I was worried about you from the start but you found the perfect opportunity.¡± Viper gave him some nice credit as he drank a potion without losing a beat. Some of his wounds closed instantly, but most of them remained. This looked like one of the low-ranking potions. ¡°Well, at least you can¡¯t throw your shit at me now.¡± He gestured to all of Sam¡¯s weapons, strewn across the ground.


    He had lost control over them as the electricity hit him, his Psyhands didn¡¯t need much concentration but being electrocuted took the little needed out of him.


    Forcing himself to get back on his feet properly, which took considerable effort due to the status effect, he felt the aftereffects of being shocked like that more than he expected after triggering a level-up healing. However, the next step was clear, if he thought Sam had thrown all his weapons and was not unable to fight back, that just worked out well for him.


    As Viper stepped closer to Sam, electrical energy building up in the cleaver, Sam placed two Psyhands over his eyes and Force Pulsed them both. As the man shouted out in pain and clutched his eyes, dropping the glowing cleaver, Sam grabbed it and all his other weapons with newly spawned Psyhands and did as he usually did!


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Moonlight Slash triggered, +5 [ Light ] damage. ]


    Not having considered that the trees created enough shade for Moonlight Slash to trigger, he was happy that it happened now. It was amusing that the cleaver landed a critical hit, but so did the Moonblade again!


    As the Moonblade landed its hit, a bright pulse of energy like looking at the sun for a split second flashed out of his wound, one of the daggers missed but everything else landed properly. In a grunt of pain, as it all landed, Viper fell together, his body limp on the ground.


    Sam felt a rush of victory, though he didn¡¯t exclaim it, right now he looked at the others with suspicious eyes. Odds felt high that someone would capitalise on this event, becoming the new boss or something. Pulling all his weapons to hover around himself, he was ready to strike at anything or anyone, forcing people to take a few steps away.


    Dia was struggling to get to her feet, but looked relatively fine, considering her low health. Sam took a moment to abuse the situation, from what he could see, Viper had some Player gear on him. Pointing at some poor soul closer than the others.


    ¡°You, get his gear off him!¡± Sam¡¯s commanding tone and floating weapons seemed to do the trick.


    The man carefully dropped his weapons and stepped in, starting to undress the gear of the now-dead Viper. Every time anyone else took a step closer he turned a blade towards them, having them take a step back in immediately. Dia was back on her feet and snarled at anyone seeming like they wanted to try anything, which helped Sam¡¯s threats considerably.


    [ Quest: The Island


    Dominant forces: 2 ]


    He saw the quest window update, a little flash drew his attention to it in the corner of his view.


    [ Quest: The Island


    Dominant forces: 3 ]


    As soon as it lowered, it also raised one notch. This had him believe that the first update was Viper losing his slot, going back to three was probably Sam taking his spot on the list. If that was true then the Bloodfangs had probably gotten a new strongest individual. He would have to pay them a visit in a few days.


    It didn¡¯t take long before the man was done undressing his leader, all the rings and bracelets took a short moment but it was all on the ground in front of Sam. Using some spare Psyhands he rummaged through them, in case some were boobytrapped or still electrified somehow. In the end, he found that the only Player gear that Viper had, was the Robe and an Amulet. Deciding to look into them later he took them for now.


    ¡°Now, feel free to do the fuck you want, but know that if you get a new leader or get back on the list of Dominant forces, I¡¯ll be back.¡± This was a threat that Sam didn¡¯t fake, he intended to win this fucking thing and he would be back if they became another dominant force.


    He left the camp, being allowed to do so, as soon as he had taken a few steps Dia followed suit and they found themselves back in the jungle.


    Exhaling with the deepest sigh he had ever had, he felt a metaphorical mountain lift off his shoulders having left that deathtrap. He started jogging, he wanted back into his cave, it was the safest place on the island he knew. Dia let out some happy sounds and followed on all fours as she had regained most of her dexterous movements.


    Managing to not trip on the way, Sam did his best to run whereas Dia seemed to have little, if any problems. Sam supposed that was one of the perks of being native in this environment. Though he was surprised to notice that Dia didn¡¯t notice the singular Goblin ahead of them, they found it as they ran straight into its spear range. It looked ready, had probably heard Sam¡¯s stomping from far away.


    Sam internally cursed having lowered his guard yet again, cursing himself at doing shit like this as soon as things starts going well, he noticed that Dia ran in on two legs rather than four. As she got within striking distance of the goblin, who was thrusting his spear towards her, she expertly swatted it to the side with her wrist and delivered four consecutive, powerful punches. There were no claws involved, but clenched fists. Each punch was delivered with the stance and movements of a martial artist Sam had seen in videos and movies. The Goblin tried to do something against each punch, but as each punch landed with a sickening cracking squelch in his chest, he had no chance to overcome their effects before falling over.


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    [ Experience gained: +300. ]


    ¡°Wait... That¡¯s what Martial Arts meant? You know actual Martial Arts?¡± Sam broke out. He had seen Martial Arts as a skill in her info earlier when they formed the contract, but he thought it was just an easy way to list ¡®Beastfolk hand-to-hand combat¡¯ or something, he didn¡¯t expect actual Martial Arts.


    Dia looked at him with a tilted, curious head and expression. ¡°Var ''yap'' serak.¡±


    Sam understood the two first words if the ¡®yap¡¯ sound could be considered a word, Var was a reference to the self, and the Yap was a no, he didn¡¯t know what the last word was but in context, it felt like she said something like that she didn¡¯t understand what he said.


    If that was so, he couldn¡¯t fault her.


    Shaking his head and Psyhand patting down the Goblin for any good stuff, they left without anything new. He was glad to see that even if he didn¡¯t do anything, the XP obtained from something was shared between them, and since she was capped due to the level difference it all went to him. Which was practical, to say the least.


    They continued back to the cave, and taking things a bit slower they avoided meeting anything dangerous on the way. He was a bit paranoid returning like this, having food in there could attract something to come and take a gander, but feeling around with his Psyhands as he got closer he felt safer before he popped his head in. Before Dia entered he decided that she needed to be cleaned, again. She wasn¡¯t as caked with gore as last time, but the bite on the man¡¯s wrist still had some around her mouth and in the fur around her throat, so it was good getting that away.


    He extended some Psyhands inside to get a fire going, luckily that was easy enough even from afar, and he spent some time cleaning Dia. Though he knew she was capable of that herself, she looked... bad. Physically she looked fine but the way she moved and acted, it was probably the first time she was electrocuted like this, and with a powerful effect as well. The status effect itself had faded a while ago as they ran back, but her HP was low and since she still moved a bit odd, Sam assumed a mix of her finer motor skills could be harsher affected.


    Dia seemed to be very happy to be cleaned by Sam. Her eyes were half closed as she let off a strange purring when Sam moved his wet hands through the fur around her mouth and throat, as it ended up running down her chest he found out it was probably better to just clean most of her to get it away. It turned almost weird for him, though this was for the sake of keeping her clean, the fact that she was naked was getting to him, he did his best not to touch anywhere weird, she would have to handle that herself.


    ¡°Var jaan, Sa sorr.¡± She said this through her purring and enjoyment of being cleaned. Sam had no idea what it meant, he understood his name and ¡®var¡¯, but the other two words didn¡¯t make sense even in context. He noticed that as he avoided the intimate areas she... almost looked bummed out once the cleaning was done. He felt she was clean enough, all things considered. Helping her out of the water he returned to the cave with her following.


    The fire was burning, not well as he did it without looking but he was happy with how far it got when he reached in and did it all via feel. Though his Psyhands couldn¡¯t be burned or damaged, he could still feel the heat when things were working, so he could get a sense of things. He also kept it somewhat small so it didn¡¯t spread accidentally. It felt surprisingly amazing being able to do things like that when focusing on something else elsewhere.


    He sat Dia down near the fire to dry off and warm up, though the island was not cold by any means, she was weak and still having some after-effects of the electricity. Based on experience being shocked by a live wire in a house or something, you could feel it for a short while, but it¡¯d probably be gone by tomorrow. Her low health was still a worry, it had gone up to 11 / 140 since they left, meaning that if she healed at the same speed as he did, it would be one per hour, so full health in about 130 hours. Which would be just under 6 days. He wasn¡¯t sure if he had that kind of time. Not showing himself or keeping the threat of his existence up, the others might calm down and some brave people might start taking over.


    He needed to keep the pressure on.


    But for now, he needed Dia in better health, at the very least a day or so, perhaps he could persuade her to remain around the cave as he takes the next one.


    As he was pondering what to do and how to approach the next attack, he needed to pay the Bloodfangs a visit, as well as find and check out the Iron Reavers. His train of thought was interrupted by Dia scooting around the fire to sit closer to Sam, ending up sitting gently against his side with her tails wrapped around his waist like a weird hug.


    She had been somewhat close with him since they formed the contract, he wasn¡¯t super experienced in the field of intimacy and love, but he knew this was no longer just an animal thing. He needed to find a way to confront her about this, in his mind he thought it could be some feelings towards him as he had saved her, as he thought earlier he knew of stories where people had ¡®fallen in love¡¯ with firemen saving them, he still thought this was something similar.


    Though earlier in the evening, the sun was already setting. They had been sitting in the cave and trying to talk, Dia¡¯s health had risen a few points and she was looking better from the shock she got earlier. They were eating and drinking, trying to converse and learn more words or meanings. Dia was still very fascinated by Sam¡¯s Psyhands, now being more used to them she exclaimed ¡®Sa shirin¡¯ when she wanted them to appear, either reaching into the air, looking somewhere random or trying to give something to the air.


    Manifesting a hand and responding to her actions, he found this very amusing. In his mind this was just like a very, very long and invisible hand, he could feel and sense anything with it as he could with his normal hands, so when she grabbed one of the Psyhands and placed it on her own head, rubbing it back and forth as if she gave herself a headpat, he was surprised to say the least.


    He took this as a request for head patting, which he was happy to oblige with. Petting her head with the Psyhand had her smile happily as she purred, looking quite content.


    This kind of back and forth continued until it felt like a good time to go to bed, like the day before, Dia was adamant that he get in the bed and she snuggled up against him. She was the hurt one but she didn¡¯t seem to want to hear it, it was apparently very important that he got in the bed.


    Waking up the next morning Sam found Dia to be gone. Given how adamant she was at bonding with him he had no doubt she was around somewhere, but it was just slightly out of character for her. Her health had increased to 20 so if nothing else she was doing well and alive. Getting out of bed he started his morning routine, which out here in the Jungle was surprisingly simple; toilet, wash up and some food. Not too different from the modern world for those who can afford it.


    By the time he was done doing his business by some trees further away from the cave, taking great care in what leaves he used, he came back to finding Dia looking slightly distressed, but as soon as she saw him this faded to a happy smile as she shouted ¡°Sa!¡±.


    Running over to him on two legs she was carrying something wrapped up in a large leaf.


    She tilted her head down, looking at the ground in an almost submissive way as she almost hesitantly handed him the package. ¡°Sa. Zennor zar var.¡±


    This was just his name and random words to him, he found it weird that she acted the way she did, it seemed important, her voice carried a certain pressure behind it but also had a strong hint of uncertainty and hesitation. Her body language remained careful and submissive, almost metaphorically kneeling without actually doing so.


    Sam received the package placed in his hands, opening the wrapped leaves he was almost surprised to find food in it. The best he could guess it was, was some crushed or mashed fruit, with a yellow hue and sweet smell, could this be some mango thing? There were also some pieces of meat in there that he couldn¡¯t recognize, it was cooked at least, the irregular shape made it seem like she had torn into it, perhaps cut it with claws, at least not with a sharp blade. All in all, it looked like cooked meat with mashed fruit and a few berries to top it with, it looked appetising. If he had to comment on it, the only thing that was a bit out of place was a weak musky smell from it, it was faint and he wasn¡¯t sure if he smelled it from the food or Dia who was standing very close to him. But he had no need to deny this, it looked like she put considerable effort into it, given that they were in the jungle.


    ¡°For me?¡± He asked, just confirming, he didn¡¯t know if the idea was for them to share.


    She didn¡¯t lift her head but added some information. ¡°Sa. Vek rukna, var fruk. Zar kaar.¡±


    He... had no idea what any of that meant, fearing that it might mean something weird in her culture he wanted to not accept it but... At the same time, this felt important enough that if he rejected it... it might make things worse.

 Ch.043 - Uneventful Ruins

    As he held the food in his hand he was pondering for a few seconds, a few seconds that seemed to make Dia almost worried and skittish where she stood. This seemed too important to be just a random food, the way she stood, the way she was looking down, the way her body language gave her a sort of weak form. His hesitance just affected her more and more as the long seconds dragged on.


    Sam knew he was not exactly experienced with love or intimacy, but given how she had been sitting against him, how her tails was touching him, how she wanted to be pet... It all hinted that she had romantic feelings. But given how she took to new words and was willing to teach him words and her language, even having a language, she wasn¡¯t dumb, and would probably understand misunderstandings if it came to that.


    Alternatively, he could refuse, try to do it as politely as possible... if that would translate at all. In a way, it could have her return to her people, but after the contract bond thing, that seemed extremely unlikely. If she was to fight with him and come with him, looking at it purely logical and without emotion; it was probably better to take the option that was positive in her eyes.


    He was conflicted, but in the end, he decided to eat it for now and do his best with whatever the outcome was. He found it to be surprisingly good, like most food in this kind of scenario it could use some salt, though that could just be his modern human palate, with the sweetness of the mashed fruit, the flavour punch of the berries and the meat he couldn¡¯t place what animal it came from was a good combo. The more he ate of it the happier Dia looked, still looking down and acting kind of weird, she was excited. He worried a bit about what this meant, he hoped it was some returning the favour of him helping her when he found her, but he had his doubts.


    Though the food was nice, there wasn¡¯t much of it, and he was still hungry, he wondered what happened to the rest of the meat she used, but they had plenty of fish in the cave, it wasn¡¯t like they lacked things to eat. Moments after the gifted food was eaten, Dia looked up at him with almost sparkling eyes, she was ecstatic. All worry and hesitation had seemingly peeled away, and in place was her almost vibrating excitement. It was good that she was happy, but he did wonder what he had signed up for and how this was going to alter their dynamic.


    Moving back into the cave, she followed him attentively, almost seeming to try and match his steps like a child having fun. She walked much closer than before and was looking at him more. He was realizing how this had already changed things...


    They got back into the cave and sat down, like before, she would sit against him, her tails draped across his lap or around him like she was holding him with it, he didn¡¯t particularly mind this, it was surprisingly nice, but he wondered how it would work out later if he could bring her with him of the island.


    Not ending up checking the gear he took from Viper yesterday, this was a good time to do so. They had just been placed in a corner-like area of the cave as they got back, being focused on her health and not meeting more goblins than checking things. In hindsight, it would probably have been best to check that as soon as they got away, after all, he could have perhaps used them.


    The robe was light blue and had some other coloured material woven through the fabric, they vaguely changed colour so it was hard to place what they were made of. The Amulet was surprisingly simple, a small metal plate with an embedded blue crystal in it.


    [  Storm caller''s Robe - C-rank


    Defence: 5


    +15% Lightning Spell Damage


    +10% Mana Regeneration Rate


    Resistance: 20 vs electric attacks. ]


    [ Amulet of Electrical Mastery - C-rank


    -10% mana cost for electric abilities.


    +5% Critical Hit Chance with Lightning abilities. ]


    He was surprised at the robe, it acted both as armour but also just as an item, it was only C-rank with three bonus abilities, and the low Defense rating or how it was split into electricity defence specifically might be why that was. In either case, though these items were probably worth a pretty penny, they weren¡¯t useful for him. The only thing he could use was the Defense rating, but his armour was better, and the Electricity resistance but... Electricity was a rather rare element, so he didn¡¯t see the need to use it at the moment. Giving it to Dia could be a good idea, if nothing else she¡¯d get a Defense rating of 5, which was more than her 0. It was a simple robe so it shouldn¡¯t be too hard to move in.


    But the back of it was shredded, barely anything left from the collection of cuts he delivered on Viper. The magic still worked, based on his experience with his armour, even when damaged like that. The problem was that if you¡¯re unlucky you might not be able to put things on.


    With that in mind, he would need to get it fixed before he could properly use it. There was a cleaning and repair fee, or cut, when he sold his TAC armour on his first day as well, so it would probably be something similar.


    This meant that he had two sets of gear that they couldn¡¯t properly use. He¡¯d look into selling it when he got back after all of this shit was done, but for now, he decided to take today easy, letting Dia heal before setting out. Given how attached she was today, the odds of having her wait with the cave as he set out felt like it was zero. Instead, he decided to try and have her show what she could do in the sense of Martial Arts. he had seen some punches but that was about it.


    Bringing her outside, he tried to mimic the movements she did with the Goblin yesterday, trying to get her to... somehow... Explain or show what she could do. Once she understood what he wanted, she performed some neat-looking moves on him, and he realised that he had no clue where to begin to grade this. It looked good... or so he thought at least, he didn¡¯t know if it was any good.


    After she had shown some moves she came running over to him, stopping very close as she started explaining a long string of things he had no idea what meant. In the end, she looked at him with extremely expectant eyes, the only thing he could do was to pat her on the head and compliment her. He dubbed she understood the words but she seemed to love the headpats.


    Throughout the day they just prepared things, she showed him some fruit and plants that were good to eat, and when she found things that were bad to eat her tone of voice changed dramatically as she said some other words. He got that they were bad but didn¡¯t understand just how bad.


    He started noticing something. Something he realised that was bound to happen. He had somewhat hoped that the food he got was just some appreciation for helping her, and not that it was something romantically aligned, but she had started moving and bending differently than before. When she was picking up something from the ground she just so happened to do it in such a way that she also presented herself to him... When she was sitting down to relax she just so happened to do it in a way that was extra provocative or showed off some part of her...


    On the one hand, he didn¡¯t mind at all. He wasn¡¯t immune to female charms and it wasn¡¯t exactly that he disliked Dia. But on the other hand, this was feeling perhaps a bit rushed, or out of place as she had bound herself to him as essentially a slave. However, he hadn¡¯t given her any orders... if nothing else due to lack of language, but she had perhaps misunderstood something as an order... But... As he considered that, she looked too happy for any of this to be forced, it felt too genuine... Besides, did it really matter?


    Sam locked himself in a spiral of thought, giving him a weird look on himself, trying to figure out how he truly felt on the subject. He wasn¡¯t some horny monster that couldn¡¯t control himself when anything naked showed interest in him, but he also wasn¡¯t someone who was lying to themselves enough that he would pretend to not enjoy or be affected by it.


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    ¡°Sa!¡± Dia¡¯s voice shouted out as she had come back close to him. She looked almost a bit annoyed like he had been ignoring her for a minute.


    In her defence, he accidentally might have.


    She went on a long explanation of something, only lightly touching on the few words he understood. Not enough for him to get a context for the meaning. But she pointed in different directions as she did, she was clearly explaining something to him but he had no idea what it was... Responding with an explanation on how he still didn¡¯t understand and had no idea what she was trying to explain only had her happily smile and continue talking.


    Well, at least she looked like she was enjoying herself.


    Most of their day was like this, she kept showing him around, explaining things. She tried to teach him new words but without several different of the same category of things to compare with, he couldn¡¯t confirm what the words meant. At least he could get the vaguest of hints of what words were used in what group of contexts.


    At random times she would shout out for his ¡®Shirin¡¯, handing something to his hands in a seemingly random direction. At times they were plants she wanted carried or a stick she wanted to see hit against a tree. Once it was a rock before she faked a throwing motion towards a boulder in the distance, she looked super happy when he launched it and hit. In other times she reached out and requested a hand only to place it on her head. Seeming to enjoy the touch when she walked around the jungle.


    Perhaps this wasn¡¯t so bad, had it not been for the threat of death and that he would have to kill people to get off, just this kind of thing could be nice. Something not that nice was the fact that he realised his complete lack of caring killing the people here, it wasn¡¯t that he wanted to kill them but it was just the means to an end. Not more problematic than killing a Goblin.


    Her totally accidental presenting continued, he knew what this meant and she looked strangely miffed when he didn¡¯t act on it or pretended to not notice. In a way, it was a bit amusing but he knew what this meant, since these kinds of events only started happening after that special meal, he just got that re-confirmed yet again.


    She kept leading him around until they came to a small clearing, as they exited the thick brush of the jungle Sam noticed that this was one of the ruins he saw from the mountain earlier. It looked like it had once been a temple which had been retaken by nature and fallen apart. Dia looked happy as she started explaining things, pointing and moving around. Sam followed and tried to make any contextual guessing of her words, but without any proper comparison, he got nothing.


    The ruins themselves weren¡¯t that interesting. It was most likely a magnificent building once in time, the main part still stable was the floor that was once inside, the stone there was smooth, either by lots of time and feet stepping across it or perhaps the rain over however long the ceiling had been gone. There was no hint of what this place was once used for, but it looked like it could have been neat to see it in its prime.


    He was a bit sad to find out that it was as lacking as it was, he probed around with his Psyhands to see if he could find something, anything, but even with 22 more hands touching, pressing, pulling and prodding, nothing of interest was found. Odds felt high that the locals would probably have brought back anything they could find across the generations they lived here, and other Players would most likely have had the same idea. So for now it was just some rubble hinting back to something in the past.


    After spending some time in that area, they started heading back towards the cave, though the sun was still in the sky, it was slowly going down towards the horizon, and it got dark quickly on this island, once it started dimming.


    They got back easily enough, just vaguely following the shape of the mountain soon led them back to the little waterfall in front of the cave opening. As they neared the cave, Dia looked more excited, and as the fire was again burning she looked very fidgety and hesitant in a weird way. He had his ideas of what this was, and it wouldn¡¯t take long before she confirmed it. She became surprisingly clingy and attention-seeking, leading down the path Sam expected shortly thereafter.


    His doubts and hesitations faded with the light and Dia got the response she wanted from her advances.


    The next day Sam woke up to a slightly different scene than the other few days. Rather than Dia being coiled up near next to his legs, she was by his side, practically wrapped around him with her nose snuggled up against his neck, her tails were wrapped around his legs and he was somewhat tied up in her. Last night was... interesting, and somewhat special in several ways, he expected this to become a possibility around the time he accepted the special meal, but he couldn¡¯t pretend he had much against it at this point.


    She was still sleeping, though as soon as he moved that changed. Her large eyes opened and looked at him with a questioning expression. Sam didn¡¯t know how to respond in this context so he just looked back at her, just as confused.


    Smiling widely she let out a purring ¡°Sa.¡± before she uncoiled herself from him, letting him get up and get dressed. He was glad to find out that the rest of their morning routine hadn¡¯t changed that much, she was a bit closer than before but that was the main difference. A casual touch here, sitting closer against him, a weird smelling of him as she walked past him, all in all somewhat what he expected given the situation. He was able to go to the bathroom on his own, though she seemed to follow him at a distance. When she went off on her own he chose not to follow her.


    One word he learned, one she had used before, was ¡®Zar¡¯. He didn¡¯t know exactly what it meant but during breakfast, she referred to him with that word. He pointed at himself and said it to confirm. She agreed and when he tried asking the same word towards her he was met with a smile and an exciting nod. He assumed it was a word for a significant other, lover,  husband or wife or something like that. It matched many things he thought about with the context it was used.


    The rest of the morning went through the routine, she kept presenting herself at times which, now had a different tone than before. One thing that didn¡¯t change was her request for a Psyhand, which she repeatedly put on her head, now seeming to enjoy the headpats more than before. And now that they had been intimate, and that feeling was there, he wondered how problematic it would be to have her walk around naked all the time...


    [ Quest: The Island


    Dominant forces: 3 ]


    The quest detailed 3 dominant forces still, unless something weird happened this should be the Bloodfangs, Iron Reavers and himself. The Bloodfangs were the closest and easiest to visit from his cave. There was still the question what to do with Dia in this context.


    Her health had increased to 35, it was much better, the same as Sam¡¯s used to be only a day ago, though without the armour. But it was a quarter of her total health pool, he was unsure if they should wait more or not when it came to visiting the other places. If she kept hidden it would be fine, something she was very good at. But even if she was weakened, if they could have her not get attacked, it would be smarter to have her with him, right? Not always an easy task but like before, he dubbed he could make her stay.


    Given that she wasn¡¯t dumb, he decided to try and explain it to her in a simple way, he was covered in weapons, the Moonblade the most dramatic of them. Pulling the larger blade he made a fake attacking motion. ¡°I need to go and visit the other camps. It¡¯s going to be dangerous, do you want to come with me?¡±


    She looked at him with a questioning expression, then at the sword before her eyes returned to him with a determined look.


    ¡°Thar.¡±


    He had no idea what that meant, but he hoped she knew what she was doing. Sheathing the Moonblade he got up and headed out of the cave, it was time to visit the Bloodfangs, they apparently had a new leader that he needed to do something about.

 Ch.044 - Bleed

    They left the relative safety of the cave, the Bloodfangs were the closest camp of the three and the one Sam had the closest experience with. It wasn¡¯t a problem getting there in good time. It was still relatively early in the day for an attack, but this time he thought it might be somewhat smart to make it official. It most likely worked out for the Shadowclaw when he took out Viper, the number hadn¡¯t increased yet at least. And if he pops in at times to keep it that way, it might solidify his position.


    Though he was the one who killed the Bloodfang leader, nobody knew that for a fact, so he couldn¡¯t bank on any reputation or threats based on that. But whoever had taken over shouldn¡¯t be on the same level as him, so it was time to set a new standard. He wanted off this island asap, the promise of a reward was a strong bonus, but he just wanted off this place.


    Trekking through the jungle, they managed to get to the edge of the camp without meeting anyone on the way. Having learned from earlier failures, Sam tried to sneak the whole way just in case. Though this made the trip take much longer time, dying on the way didn¡¯t help him so it was worth the effort. On the way there he was contemplating how to do it, he didn¡¯t want to just stroll in and start killing, it would certainly make a point but enough ants can overwhelm most targets, and he didn¡¯t want to risk it. He could stroll in and shout a challenge, that might be the safest option. As with Viper he needed to make himself seen and they needed to know that he was the one doing this, or his threats wouldn¡¯t work.


    Peering into the camp it was hard to see who was the leader, if he was even there. Having already decided that a challenge was the best option, he banked on the threat of him walking in there with a Beastfolk in tow to not only make them think he¡¯s a different class, but the fear factor of just having a tamed monster would help.


    It didn¡¯t take many seconds before he was noticed and approached by some people, who looked expectantly wary of not just him but the monster following him. Taking the moment to loudly announce himself with a challenge, he inhaled deeply and shouted.


    ¡°I challenge the leader of the Bloodfangs.¡± He had forgotten the second word of their clan name, it didn¡¯t matter, he just wanted to get this over with.


    The people who came walking over had stopped when he shouted, others were looking in his direction and murmuring began. He could barely overhear some words here and there, not enough to get any meanings. In the following moments, several more people came out of various tents or walked over to see what the commotion was.


    A few moments later a man came walking through the crowd. He had short blonde hair, was covered in scars, wore a long leather coat, looked surprisingly strong for his slender frame and had a single dagger in a sheath fastened to the front of his belt.


    ¡°I hear you¡¯re challenging me.¡± He commented in a louder-than-needed voice as he extended his hands making a point out of his presence.


    ¡°Oh? You have yourself a little pet?¡± His voice turned condescending as he referred to Dia.


    Sam was fine with him believing her as his pet, that probably had him think it was part of his needed skillset like Viper did. Now all he needed was an opening.


    He didn¡¯t respond to his statements and just waited for the next move.


    ¡°Well, speak up, if you¡¯re challenging me, I expect you have a story or something to say?¡± The man turned around and sounded like he was speaking more to the crowd than to Sam.


    ¡°I don''t have much to say. But I thought you learned your lesson when I killed your last leader. I¡¯m here to do the same again.¡± Sam was a bit surprised at himself, that sounded almost as insane as this man looked. It wasn¡¯t wrong but he managed to connect to something more offputting sounding than he planned.


    The man turned back towards Sam with a surprised expression, still sporting a crowd-pleasing smile through it. ¡°Oh, You killed the Butcher?¡± He put a taunting tone on ¡®you¡¯, signalig that he didn¡¯t expect Sam to have done it.


    In his defence, Sam looked somewhat scrawny, so he couldn¡¯t blame him for not believing it.


    ¡°On what grounds do you challenge me? You want to be the leader of the Bloodf-¡± The man had started a rant that just annoyed Sam. He understood the need for theatrics and crowd-pleasing, but Sam didn¡¯t care.


    Interrupting his monologue, Sam answered right away. ¡°I intend to complete the Island Quest, you¡¯re in the way of that.¡± Abstracting down to the simplest truths felt surprisingly liberating and simple.


    ¡°Stop with whatever schtick you¡¯re doing, you going to defend yourself or not?¡± Sam pulled the Shadow Fang in his left hand and the Moonblade in his right. He wasn¡¯t a melee fighter but at least this should trigger the new leader to react appropriately.


    Sam could attack him right away before he was aware, but he feared that wouldn¡¯t give him the proper reputation as strong, someone else could just take over if it felt safe enough to do so.


    The man looked annoyed enough, pulling his dagger from his front sheathe. The blade itself was long and slightly curved towards the tip, the edge was serrated in sections almost like it was meant to tear instead of cut, and the tip tapered down to a very thin point. The side of it had runes covered it and small barbs and grooves ran along the blade side. It didn¡¯t look like it was meant to create clean wounds but rather tear and rip as it was used.


    ¡°Well, since this is a duel, I assume your pet will stay out of it.¡± The man commented in a way that sounded more like an order or statement rather than a question.


    ¡°Well, I never said duel, I said I challenged you, but sure, that¡¯s fine.¡± Sam commented dryly as he made the same hand signal he did to Dia earlier when she hid in the bush.


    She reluctantly stepped back, and this was the moment Sam¡¯s opponent decided to charge. Sam couldn¡¯t pretend he didn¡¯t expect it to happen that way, partly because he intended to do something similar. Having already manifested the needed Psyhands he placed them across his body. One over each eye, two on his crotch and two on his fingers holding the weapon, the man had a brief moment of surprise as he felt things touch him before Sam Force Pulsed.


    Letting out a grunt of pain the man managed to hold onto the dagger, using his free hand he clenched his eyes as his legs squeezed shut around his crotch. None of this caused any damage but it gave Sam a few valuable seconds. All of his weapons found themselves pulled by Pyshands, the two he had in his hands were also handed over to them, and they were flung towards the unexpected target.


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    With as many weapons he used at once, and with the bonus to critical chance he got from Eagle Eye, it was mathematically a high chance for him to crit often, sadly it was one of the crappy daggers that landed this round. No weapons triggered their effects either.


    However, with his target not expecting ranged combat to this level, he didn¡¯t have much chance to dodge and took all 11 blades to his torso.


    This caused a bit of damage, even though Sam didn¡¯t have any damage scaling he could apply, his compensating for this with several weapons worked wonders as long as they hit, and if they couldn¡¯t see, they couldn¡¯t dodge! Though he didn¡¯t know how high Defense rating the man had, and based on the results of the attacks he looked damaged but surprisingly fine. He either had very high health or at least some form of defence.


    Swinging widely as a result of not seeing what he was attacked by, he eventually was able to get the pain out of his eyes and focus properly. Seeing Sam without weapons he smiled.


    ¡°Hah! You threw all your shit, now it¡¯s my turn!¡± He stomped towards Sam with a twisted smile, looking like he was going to have fun with this.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t throw shit.¡± Sam replied as he pulled in all weapons from behind him.


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    This time it was the short sword dealing the crit, which was a better weapon to have that happening with. It again did a decent amount of damage, forcing the man to widen his stance.


    With the weapons now hovering between them, this was probably the last free hit Sam was going to get.


    Sam¡¯s opponent pulled a potion and chugged it before Sam got to properly react. Looking especially adept at that movement it was surprisingly smooth. Looking significantly better when the potion did its job, he didn¡¯t waste time and darted in towards Sam.


    As he ran towards him, Sam did his best to attack but he seemed to have figured it out, actively dodging the incoming weapons, only the Moonblade and the crude cleaver landed, however, the cleaver landed a Critical hit, which was something.


    This damage didn¡¯t even slow him down, the man looked extremely comfortable with pain as he got within striking distance of Sam, delivering a powerful thrust. Doing his best to redirect the blade with all available Psyhands it wasn¡¯t enough and the blade dug itself deep into his gut.


    [ Armour, Defence 40 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 20 / 40 ¨€¨€¨€¨€???? ]


    Even through the armour, this took half his health, he had no level-ups to heal himself with this time and he didn¡¯t have a potion. Another hit, critical or not, would take him down.


    The man smiled widely as he pulled out the blade with a sharp tug.


    [ Armour, Defence 40 has negated the damage. ]


    [ Status effect; Bleeding 5 applied. ]


    Sam¡¯s eyes widened, that was a horrible status effect, immensely overpowered. Once he landed a hit and if it landed, then... at his current health he would be dead in only a few seconds.


    He panicked slightly, pulling in all his weapons to attack the man, only two of the cheap daggers landed, and though one landed a critical hit the man didn¡¯t seem to care much and shrugged it off.


    In his dodging of Sam¡¯s weapons, he had created some distance between them, he sported a twisted smile as he kept his distance, walking back and forth with an almost euphoric expression as Sam was bleeding.


    ¡°What¡¯chu gonna do? You¡¯re fucked now, son.¡± He laughed, and the people surrounding the place joined him in his laugh.


    [ Status effect; Bleeding.


    This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.    The victim will bleed out over time, it deals damage every few seconds until the target heals either naturally, with an ability or magic, or with potions. ]


    Just considering this for a split second, natural healing took about an hour, perhaps it would be different for bleeding but 5 bleed damage every so often gave Sam only seconds.


    [ Status effect; Bleed, doing damage. ]


    [ HP: 15 / 40 ¨€¨€¨€????? ]


    In the panic of the moment, Sam sent his arsenal towards the man again. One of the cheap blades again did damage, and the Moonblade landed, again causing decent damage to him. But though he looked the worst he had done so far, he still looked surprisingly fine with how he handled himself.


    [ Status effect; Bleed, doing damage. ]


    [ HP: 10 / 40 ¨€¨€?????? ]


    Sam was running out of time, he needed to do something to stop this, his expression grew more urgent, more panicked. Perhaps the man had more potions, he needed something, anything. Reaching out he pulsed around his eyes again, but the man powered through, not even clenching his eyes and with a wide smile and forced-open eyes he laughed. ¡°That shit¡¯s not gonna work again, fucker!¡±


    He was extremely good at dodging, and based on the damage he had taken vs how much damage could be seen on his body, his coat most likely had some Defense rating on it. As he was gloating he pulled out another potion from a pocket or container under his coat, but as he uncorked it Sam reached out with a Psyhand and plugged the opening, metaphorically putting the finger in the opening and holding on.


    [ Status effect; Bleed, doing damage. ]


    [ HP: 5 / 40 ¨€??????? ]


    The man tried to drink from it, but it didn¡¯t work at all, putting the vial to his lips there was an invisible force between them. Using his knife he tried to scrape whatever was the way off, but the Psyhands could be ¡®hit¡¯, but not hurt nor would Sam feel any pain from this. As he was struggling with this Sam launched another attack at him as he put more Psyahnds on the potion and yanked it towards himself at the same time.


    Though he was not dodging as much, the panicked moment for Sam meant that only two of his weapons landed, one of them, the cleaver, landed a critical hit. The man barely looked more wounded than before, but in that brief moment, a multi-hand yank worked! The potion came loose and flew towards Sam. Using the same motion he unplugged it with the Psyhand and fed it to himself.


    [ Status effect; Bleed, negated. ]


    [ HP: 9 / 40 ¨€??????? ]


    Sam internally cursed, this was a shit potion, 10% healing for him meant 4 Health restored. However, it stopped the Bleeding and at least gave him time. A minor victory, though short-lived.


    ¡°That was my last potion, shitstain.¡± The man looked livid as he started running towards Sam. Another stab and it was going to be over.


    Activating his shoes, he flash-stepped to a location behind the man, further away, closer to the crowd around them. The men standing there jumped backwards as he suddenly appeared. The bandit leader looked confused for a brief moment as he looked around.


    Sam didn¡¯t waste this moment.


    All his weapons flew towards the man and though some missed, and one crude dagger landed a critical hit, the heavy-hitting weapons did their job, ending with the Moonblade digging its thicker steel into his neck before he fell forwards.


    [ Experience gained: +25 000. ]


    [ Levelup +1! ]


    [ XP to lv.15: 19 365 / 81 920 ¨€¨€???????? ]


    [ Bonded Beastfolk; Dia, levelled up! ]


    [ Dia XP to lv.10: 0 / 256  ????? ]


    Sam had no idea what the logic behind PvP XP was, but given that he got more from this man than he got from Viper was... strange. Viper netted him just 10 000, and this man gave him over double? However, he didn¡¯t intend to complain and took the level up with extreme gladness. Triggering the effect right away he put the point into Spirit as he usually did. He had a brief thought of if he should put it in Vitality but at the moment it felt more appropriate to keep with the logic he had done so far.


    He also wondered how Dia¡¯s levelling was going to happen, if she fixed that herself or if it fell on him, given her contract details, the latter was probably the case, but she was not in any immediate danger right now so she could wait.


    As his health was restored, and his wound closed, he felt amazing, both from the healing effect and also from the victory as he walked over to the limp corpse of the new ex-leader of the Bloodfangs.


    Not waiting, he started rummaging through his pockets, noticing Dia¡¯s extremely relieved and happy expression now that he didn¡¯t look wounded or near death. Taking his good time to rummage through his items, his weapons hovering around him ready to strike at anyone trying their luck.


    Since his potions were consumed, the only thing that remained was his dagger and his coat, nothing else of interest. Taking a brief second he took a glance at their stats.


    [ Bleeding Edge - Rank D


    Base Damage: 20


    10% chance to inflict Bleed 5. ]


    [ Inflicters coat - Rank E


    Defence: 5


    +30% to activate any percentile ability on a skill or item.]


    The dagger immediately became part of his swarm, but the Coat wasn¡¯t extremely interesting. Though the passive ability was amazing for his collection of weapons having percentage activation abilities, he couldn¡¯t forgo the vest he was currently wearing. It was also as shredded as the robe from Viper, so there were second thoughts about how useful it was.


    [ Quest: The Island


    Dominant forces: 2 ]


    In the moment he had used to strip the man of his gear, the quest had updated, and Sam was happy that it was working already.


    Bundling things up he got up from his careful looting and looked around at the other people surrounding them, still looking surprised and uncertain of what to do.


    ¡°I¡¯ll say the same to you as I did the Shadowfangs.¡± Sam shouted, giving them a second to process things before continuing. ¡°You¡¯re free to do what you want, but if I see another leader on the quest, I¡¯ll be back.¡±


    As he started to leave, one brave soul spoke from the group. ¡°So, we¡¯re just going to let you take the reward alone?!¡± He sounded very judgemental and annoyed.


    Sam turned towards the voice, with all his weapons snapping towards the same rough angle, forcing the group of people there to step aside, singling out the poor man who spoke. Though Sam¡¯s reaction was somewhat dramatic, he couldn¡¯t blame the man for thinking this, after all, everyone here was probably striving for the same hope for the reward.


    ¡°Yes.¡± Sam replied dryly. ¡°However I intend to bring anyone who wants to go back to Earth with me, those of you who like this place can stay.¡±


    This caused a lot of murmuring in the group of people, he expected that many would be annoyed, and many would be relieved but in the end, he didn¡¯t care what they thought. He wanted the people who didn¡¯t deserve to be here to have the option to go back. Though there would probably be those who deserve being here, that would get the chance to go back, he also didn¡¯t care much about that, he just wanted to get off this island.


    Nobody stopped him as he left this time, disappearing into the jungle with Dia following him.


    As soon as they weren¡¯t able to see the camp anymore, Sam started running. Dia looked confused but matched his speed without effort. He just wanted to get some distance between them so he could properly relax. Aiming to run in some random direction in case he was chased, he ended up in a a suitable spot to stop, and take some deep breaths and finally relax.


    ¡°Good lord that was stressful.¡± Sam sighed after a minute catching his breath. Feeling surprisingly good about the upgraded stamina with that one point, though it might be an odd thing as his Vitality was 3, and a 30% upgrade is dramatic at lower levels.


    Dia tilted her head as she got closer to him, wondering what he was doing. She didn¡¯t say or ask anything but rather just sort of existed close to him. Taking this moment, Sam checked her information and found that he did indeed have similar control over her levelling, much like he had on Elara.


    Wondering if it was best to level up her Vitality or Dexterity, he decided it was best to give her some health... Getting some flashbacks to the lightning attack that almost killed her, he simply put the point in there and confirmed.


    He felt a pulse of energy from her, one she felt as well based on her wide eyes and tails puffing up. Seeing her health recharge to the new maximum of 150 was also very comforting, but his thoughts were derailed as she got up properly and started spewing lots of words he hadn¡¯t heard before in a very happy tone.


    Halfway toning out, Sam wondered if they should go back to the cave before it became dark, or just visit the last camp. Both of their levelling had put them back to their prime meant that this was a good time.


    Sam had mixed thoughts, but all things considered, it was probably a good thing to use this moment to scout them out, at the very least. He vaguely remembered where the last camp was and Dia could probably help there.


    Letting Dia complete her monologue, ending in a wide happy smile as she looked pumped, he motioned for the direction he intended to go, heading towards the rough area of the last camp. She more than happily followed, looking content just moving about with him.


    Having no idea what to expect of the Iron Reavers, the nickname of Ironhand on their leader, didn¡¯t sound like a good thing.

 Ch.045 - Claw

    As they snuck through the jungle, it was starting to get dark, at least the large moon helped light up the path, at least the few areas it shone through the trees. Though it had taken considerable time, they had gone around the camps he knew of towards the last one, it took a bit more work to get to due to being on the far other side compared to the two they had visited. Taking the long way around not to trigger any of the camps, it took longer.


    In the end, they managed to find the camp, though Dia was the one who narrowed in on it once they got closer. Her sense of hearing and smell made it surprisingly easy.


    This time they also avoided any patrols, they didn¡¯t see or notice any, and there was no one walking about with torches like the others did. However, the camp was very well lit up, with a perimeter of torches and a large open band between objects or structures before they were scattered about. This meant that sneaking in was practically impossible even during the night. Sam looked at the people moving about, though they looked similar to other Players he had seen earlier, they acted more structured. People were patrolling in groups, there were more of them, but they kept within the circle of light, spoke often to each other and... this place acted more like a military place than the other camps which were just bandit camps.


    According to the info Sam had, these were the Iron Revers, the leader should be an Iron Hand. And it didn¡¯t take long for Sam to spot him.


    A man walking about, looking much taller than average, wore a heavy set of dark metal armour, giving the image of a dark knight. His right hand was a massive metal gauntlet, probably where his nickname came from, it had the same dark-metal colour as the armour. His steps were relatively slow but heavy, it took zero knowledge about this man to realize that his armour had a high defensive rating and that he was strong.


    This was a huge problem for Sam. He needed to test to make sure but... he expected this man to have a Defense rating of at least the same as his armour, which was 40, which in turn stopped him from doing any consistent damage to the man. The only weapon capable of doing anything would be a crit from the Moonblade... which also might not be enough, as he didn¡¯t know the actual numbers. And just walking around with that much metal on you, would need a certain level of strength... So this was probably a horrifyingly strong man. Given how orderly and organized this camp was, he was probably also just ¡®more¡¯ than the others...


    Sam had severe second thoughts. He wanted to at least test-attack him with the Moonblade to see if he got through the Defense, but doing so would reveal his telekinesis, and talking to him could be the last thing he does...


    There were many uncertainties, and the organized group of people here also felt more intimidating. It didn¡¯t feel as loose or chaotic as the others, he had no idea how that would change things. Glancing over at Dia, she looked surprisingly uncertain as she saw him as well, leading Sam to believe that his speculation about this man being strong, possibly being correct.


    Like with the first boss, he would have to be smart about it, but what could he do? And how could he do it safely enough that allow him to survive?


    He regretted not working with Janik to try and find a way to work against armour, it wouldn¡¯t be needed until the second Floor when clearing dungeons, but...


    Eventually having to fight him, to beat him and be recognized as the single dominant force on the island, even if he postponed now it wouldn¡¯t change the result. Thinking longer could give him a chance to figure out something, yes, but there won¡¯t be much difference. But... it would be better than rushing in and gambling on things.


    As he turned around to begin leaving, he vaguely saw something move in the darkness before he found himself hit and tangled in a net. Trying to get it off proved futile in the lack of light. Dia freaked out and made a lot of sounds and noises he hadn¡¯t heard from her before, they sounded angry and chaotic.


    ¡°Dia!¡± Sam called out to her. Her eyes met his and she calmed down considerably. He was glad this was the reaction as she could easily hurt herself or be considered too dangerous if she started damaging the net, and just stabbed through it or something.


    Looking around he couldn¡¯t see anyone, they were alone until two men just appeared next to them. The best he could guess was that they were incredibly skilled in Stealth, or had some invisibility skills.


    Though, he saw them now, and he didn¡¯t need to move to them to do anything.


    All his weapons unsheathed themselves and flew towards the two, the first target was hit by everything and he was horribly unlucky.


    Though two simple daggers missed, the Moonblade and Shadow Fang landed a critical hit, on top of that the Bleeding edge triggered its effect and applied bleed. However, the man died in an explosion of blood before the bleeding effect got a chance to do something.


    [ Experience gained: +1500. ]


    The other man instantly vanished, at least partly. Sam couldn¡¯t see his body at all, as he disappeared all of a sudden it strengthened the feeling that this might be some invisibility skill. However, due to the explosion of his ally, he was covered in blood, not to mention his chaotic movement gave Sam what he needed to send the weapons into a general area and slice them back and forth like a lawnmower from hell.


    The first attack missed a lot, but enough made contact that his focus seemed to have broken, he became visible again and though his hands were up, trying to stop the second volley of blades, it was futile.


    [ Experience gained: +1500. ]


    ¡°Sa! Sa!¡± Dia¡¯s voice sounded urgent, Sam was too focused on the two men who captured them to notice what was going on, but turning to her now he found what she was referring to.


    They weren¡¯t alone anymore.


    Dia had been picked up by the man he assumed was Ironhand, he held her by the neck with his left hand, she was thrashing and tried to claw at the arm and hand holding her but nothing she did seemed to do anything to him.


    ¡°What do we have here?¡± A deep bass voice asked. ¡°An intruder and his pet?¡±


    Dia was surprisingly calm, perhaps Sam¡¯s silent order had her believe that he was in control...


    ¡°I mean... I suppose so?¡± Sam replied honestly. If he could get into a conversation he could postpone an attack. Perhaps give him an opening.


    Other people were coming running with torches, which gave Sam a thought. How could this man have snuck up on someone as alert as Dia? Did she just not react because of the scene? Or was it that he indirectly told her to be silent? There were so many questions.


    Trying to take advantage of the focus, Sam lifted most of his weapons into the sky, to the edge of his range, as silently as he could. On purpose leaving some of the cheap weapons to explain why they were cut up. Due to the darkness, he could hide them there for the time being, even a scimitar would disappear in the darkness when 10m/30ft away.


    He nodded towards the camp as soon as the others arrived, they didn¡¯t respond but several people surrounded both him and Dia, grabbing the nets and started dragging them back to the camp. Dia looked in Sam¡¯s direction her eyes asked for guidance. Sam didn¡¯t know what to do but the fact that he was relatively calm seemed to calm her down as well.


    The trip into the camp was not pleasant, the nets were made of braided bark rope or something like that, and they were dragged across the ground. It wasn¡¯t enough to open wounds but they got scuffed relatively badly on the way. They were dragged over to a large fire, the man in armour sat down on a log and made a motion for the others, they dragged Dia and Sam next to the fire in front of him.


    ¡°You mind explain who you are, and what you are doing here?¡± His face was hidden behind his sturdy helmet, but Sam didn¡¯t feel threatened. The man¡¯s voice was firm but calm like he was analysing everything more than just reacting.


    Sam struggled a bit but sat up, still packed up in the net. ¡°Well... I was brought to the island like everyone else here. My name¡¯s Sam, and I was just scoping you out, I wanted to know who you were and stuff.¡± Feeling that it was better to be honest, though not give all the information, might be the way to go.


    ¡°Are you a part of the other groups?¡± He didn¡¯t sound as much as he was asking as he was commanding Sam to share the information.


    ¡°Not really, no. I have no interest in being part of any of the groups. And... I..¡± Sam felt a bit odd.


    [ Successfully resisted skill: Truthsayer. ]


    ¡°Ah... that explains it...¡± Sam commented as he felt like something was lifted out of his mind. He would never have shared his name in a normal situation, he would have made up a name or just made up a nickname, but he was surprisingly forthcoming.


    ¡°That¡¯s just rude.¡± Sam continued as his mind shifted from answering to looking for ways out of this.


    The man let out a strong laugh from the depths of his stomach. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect you to resist it, but since you killed two of us, it felt appropriate.¡±


    ¡°They attacked us first.¡± Sam retorted.


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    ¡°Oh, I understand that you felt that way, which is why we¡¯re talking now. But, and I don¡¯t mean this as a threat, it might not end as nicely.¡± His voice didn¡¯t change in the slightest, but Sam suddenly felt much more intimidated than before.


    ¡°Now, my men looked severely cut up, they were pretty good at sneaking, so how did you do it?¡±


    ¡°They showed themselves, I sent my blades at them, seemed to work out.¡± This time Sam felt that he could lie if he wanted to, which was why he held back the details of the truth. None of this was a lie in the strictest sense.


    ¡°Yeah... They liked to do that...¡± He replied inside his metal shell. ¡°I suppose it caught up with them... But the question then becomes; what to do with you now?¡±


    He pondered for a moment without Sam replying, he looked back and forth between him and Dia for a few seconds. ¡°What¡¯s the deal with the Beastfolk? You tamed it?¡±


    ¡°Does it matter?¡± Sam replied honestly. He didn¡¯t feel like sharing too much information, and he hated himself for not waiting until tomorrow for this meeting, at least he would have had his shoes recharged for a Flash Step.


    ¡°I suppose it doesn¡¯t. But I do want to know if you¡¯re part of the other groups, though even if you are you¡¯d probably just lie anyway. So I suppose the only smart thing is to kill you.¡± His voice was strange to Sam. It was incredibly threatening but at the same time, it sounded like it was a logical next step.


    And though Sam hated being on this side of it, it was a logical thought...


    Looking for an alternative, any opening in the armour to attack, anything he could do. Any idea he had fell short, though he hadn¡¯t tried to attack the man yet, just logically speaking this armour would make that impossible. Though he wanted to try, after all the armour might have a low Defense rating, he didn¡¯t want to risk it yet and show everyone what his powers did, it was his main trump card at the moment. Considering Dia, she was good at fighting, but according to her information, her most powerful attack, her bite could do 63 damage which might not be enough. Realistically it wouldn¡¯t even kill Sam, with his armour, so he didn¡¯t feel that this man would go down before he would retaliate.


    No, Sam needed something else, something better.


    ¡°Well, you¡¯re probably here to kill me, or to gather information. If you are alone as you say, this still feels appropriate. However, I will give you a fighting chance, a duel.¡± The man got up from the log he was sitting on, nodding towards Sam who had some other people walk over and help him out of the net.


    ¡°Is she part of your class abilities?¡± He had changed his tone about Dia and referred to her as ¡®she¡¯ instead of ¡®it¡¯ as he did before, giving her a surprising amount of respect now that he had passively challenged Sam to a duel.


    ¡°She¡¯s not, and what if I refuse?¡± Sam had to check his options.


    ¡°Then both of you die where you stand.¡± Not even looking at Sam he had started walking towards something further into the centre of their camp.


    Sam didn¡¯t have much choice and followed him, Dia was not taken out of the net but she was allowed to push her legs through the holes so she could at least walk. They walked past tents, some simple wooden huts made of sticks and logs tied together. Crude containers lined with leather to catch rainwater, tables and workbenches. Though it was a lot like the same as the other camps it was much better structured and ordered. There was room to walk between everything, and it strangely looked cleaner.


    They were led to what looked like a training area, they lit some torches around it so it became much better lit up. It was decently sized, at least for two people. Although it was a vaguely fenced-in area the size of a basketball court, just square, it looked well trampled down to solid ground.


    The armoured man entered first, motioning for Sam to enter afterwards.


    ¡°Now, the rules are simple. The first one to die loses.¡± His tone of voice was thick with his smile behind the helmet.


    Sam wanted to run, he had wanted to run since they got in there, but everyone was armed and there was a lot of them... There was no chance of him getting out.


    ¡°I don¡¯t suppose I can persuade you to just give up? If I get recognised as the dominant force I¡¯ll let you get a cut of the reward.¡± Sam tried buttering him up to get this over with, without the danger of dying.


    ¡°Bargaining? That¡¯s a good sign. I suppose you might be the other one of the two in the quest. In that case, I¡¯ll just kill you and get the whole reward.¡± Again his voice was thick with a wide smile.


    Cursing himself internally, Sam realised he had given up a lot of information with that attempt.


    ¡°Are you ready?¡± He asked bluntly. ¡°Do you need your weapons back?¡± Not waiting for Sam to respond he made a wave towards the people around the area, it took a few seconds but someone threw in the weapons they gathered from the scene of their capture.


    Sam had to give him credit for at least pretending to be upstanding. Though it felt more like arrogance than trying to be fair, he was wearing a tank, after all.


    Sam didn¡¯t pick it up but nodded to the question about being ready.


    ¡°Good, then let¡¯s start.¡±


    Sam had used the time since they entered to properly aim his named weapons above him, doing his very best to prepare for the go-signal, taking advantage of the possibility of critically striking right away.


    [ Silent Killer activated. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    All his weapons landed properly, none of them activated their abilities but he was happy with the four Critical hits.


    However, his heart fell as he saw that the damage done was far from evident. He felt that some damage made it through his armour but it wasn¡¯t much. Four critical hits from his named weapons, in addition to the Silent Killer increasing the damage from the Moonblade up to 120. Which was a dramatic increase, but he didn¡¯t know how much damage made it through, his daggers, even considering critical hitting, would only do 40 damage. The Shadowleatehr vest would handle that... And this man looked better armoured than that.


    ¡°Oh, that was a good blow.¡± The man tilted his whole body to look upwards, checking if there were more weapons up there. ¡°I thought you were a weapon thrower or something, but that trick¡¯s neat.¡± Sounding and looking unphased he started walking towards Sam.


    Sam made some distance between them and did his best to aim his weapons, critical blow after critical blow landed, but nothing seemed to slow him down. The only result of his attacks was the man laughing. Hoping for the Bleed effect to trigger proved futile, 10% sounded like it would work every 10 hits but that wasn¡¯t how the math of odds worked. Changing tactics to try and disarm him, or remove his helmet, something with Force Pulses. Triggering his eyes was problematic due to his helmet.


    The man laughed more and more as he slowly cornered Sam. As Sam tried to run around him he stepped to the side, like playing with a dog all he had to do was take a few steps in the same direction as Sam was moving, causing Sam to try the other side, only for him to do the same. It did not take long for the space between them, with the fenced wall behind him, to shorten to the point that Sam had no choice by to make his way past him.


    Faking a step to one side, he changed direction to the other and made a beeline towards it. Using all his free hands he tried to hold back his attack with pure force but also Force Pulses, however nothing stopped the man from swinging his clawed gauntlet towards Sam.


    The claws dug deep through his side, tearing up both the armour as well as his flesh. Pain spread from the wound across his body as he lost his balance and tumbled across the ground.


    [ Armour, Defence 40 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 5 / 40 ¨€??????? ]


    Even with a Defense rating of 40, he took that much damage. The blood-red text of his remaining health made him panicky, barely hearing Dia¡¯s voice outside the ring. A glance in her direction confirmed that she wanted to join the fight or do something, but still being in the net she had no way to properly get there without being cut down. She kept shouting words he hadn¡¯t heard before.


    Forcing himself to his legs, his left hand clutching the wound on his side, he had successfully made a distance between them, but all the man had to do was repeat the same process and he was fucked. His weapons couldn¡¯t do much, at least that¡¯ was how it felt. The only solace in this moment was that he wasn¡¯t bleeding out, the wound was pure damage and though it remained open it stopped bleeding. Sometimes the System had a cruel way of doing things.


    But, though all of the shit going on, Sam had an idea, if direct damage didn¡¯t work, he just needed to introduce indirect damage.

 Ch.046 - Fire

    The man stomped closer, his heavy armour, and possibly some skills, seemingly negating most if not all of the damage Sam could produce. So indirect measures were needed. The mental image of what he did to the leader with the dirt came to mind, but he didn¡¯t have the clearance for his face as he needed to hold it in. Water could be a good idea but the same, if he couldn¡¯t hold it in place and since there was probably an opening around his neck into the armour or out of the helmet... that would prove just as fruitless.


    However, there was another option.


    Dropping all his weapons, having them fall into the dirt, some standing upright and some hitting pommel or side first. The man looked around him with a chuckle.


    ¡°What, are you giving up already?¡±


    There was a humorous tone in his voice that changed as soon as he saw what was going on. Sam had used some extra Energy points to extend his area, using the extra reach he took as many torches as he could get his hands on. Pulling them up from the ground where they were impaled, yanking them from the hands of people holding them, in the end, he ended up with 9 torches floating around.


    Without waiting he moved all of them in around the man¡¯s head, focusing as much fire as he could around the opening of his helmet, some were placed around his neck, especially his throat, to have the heat enter through the most likely largest opening.


    The man panicked and started coughing right away as the heated air was all he could breathe. Sam used his fire-proof Psyhands to sort of push the flames or heat into the visor of his helmet, it looked like the air moved in this way and managed to somehow get more of the fire into the helmet. His voice became horse and ragged.


    ¡°The fuck are you doing?!¡±


    Sam didn¡¯t answer but continued his strange assault.


    Not being an idiot, the man started pulling the torches away from his face. But as soon as he dropped them to toss them aside, Sam¡¯s Psyhands were still on them and brought them back. The heat from the torches pulled the air out of it, pulling in fresh air from around the neck, but there were other torches there pulling in heat upwards creating a kind of furnace.


    He tried to unfasten his helmet, grabbing for the fastening mechanism, but Sam had considered that; a well-placed Psyhand where he was reaching blocked him from grabbing whatever mechanism held it in place. This process only lasted a few seconds before Sam could see his damage taking a toll. His coughs became worse, the heat no doubt doing internal damage to his throat and lungs, not to mention his eyes and skin. The man charged Sam.


    Having no chance of surviving if he took another hit, he needed to do something to increase his chances. He only had a few seconds at best to formulate a plan, and the plan was strangely enough easy. He just needed to stop the man from getting to him.


    Using some spare hands he picked up the Moonblade, not planning to do damage with it he planned to use its length. The man ran towards him, now shouting in pain, coughs and trouble breathing. Sam placed it between his feet as he stepped forward, and even with his meagre strength pulling back, it was enough to make the man trip and fall on his face. Now having his helmet opening straight above the flames, he shouted even more than before, he was grasping at his throat, grabbing torches and throwing them away, doing his best to cover his face or shout for water.


    Someone came with a bucket, emptying the water from the sidelines. Having seen him coming Sam had run into the path of it, being splashed and drenched, however, he stopped the water from making it to the man. It wasn¡¯t enough time to kill him, he was coughing and having trouble inhaling air, the fumes from the torches as well as the heat were getting to him, and the smell of burned flesh was thick in the air. But the man got back to his feet, using his hands to support him as he was getting up. Sam couldn¡¯t let that happen and used his Psyhands and Force Pulse to attack his wrists before he could support them properly, though the force wasn¡¯t an insane level, it was still comparable enough to a decent kick, more than enough to stop him from putting weight on his hands and get up. With that much armour, the panic and fire, it didn¡¯t take long before the stress, lack of fresh air and damage caught up with him.


    His body started twitching and spasming disturbingly as the fires continued doing their damage. Sam held the fires there a long time after the spasming stopped, he was paranoid enough that the slimmest of chances that this man was somehow faking it was a legit fear. However, once his face started burning and the helmet started glowing a dull red, he got the information he needed.


    Psyhand grabbed the Moonblade, taking a solid moment to irk it in under his helmet to stab it through his throat. It took a few attempts which only furthered the gruesome scene, blood pooling under the man¡¯s head as Sam stabbed again and again and didn¡¯t stop until he felt satisfied.


    [ Experience gained: +25 000. ]


    [ XP to lv.15: 44 109 / 81 920 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€????? ]


    [ Dia XP to lv.10: 256 / 256  ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€ ]


    The XP confirmed his death, he didn¡¯t know if that happened before or after the tabbing, but it still felt appropriate. Dia¡¯s XP was immediately capped like before, which made a lot of sense, if he kept getting XP like this, it wouldn¡¯t be hard for her to keep up.


    After this was done, letting go of the torches which were held against his helmet the whole time, sizzling the flesh inside, he turned to the group around him with all his blades hovering around him.


    ¡°Anyone else?!¡± He sounded pissed, and frankly, he was. At the people here, especially at the fuckers who liked killing and seemingly did it for fun, at the System for making all these tests so fucking insane, for putting him against other players again and again...


    He just wanted to go back, he wanted to sleep in a bed, he wanted to just... chill... Do dungeons... Even the fleshy dungeon was better than this shit. A brief thought about how easy that was with today¡¯s knowledge made him let out a small chuckle.


    [ Quest: The Island


    Dominant forces: 1 ]


    The quest window popped up, and he decided to not question how the system measured this, as the other clans wouldn¡¯t know that Ironhand was dead, so how could the man be considered no longer one of the dominant forces, he didn¡¯t care.


    [ Congratulations, you are considered the single dominant force on the island.


    Calculating reward. ]


    Though there was no sound, this was like music to Sam¡¯s... eyes. He felt amazing, it was almost like it was all worth it. He was glad that he didn¡¯t have to fight others, it might have been worth just taking out the leaders like this but... he had no idea how things could have been different, but again; he didn¡¯t care.


    ¡°You-¡± Sam commented as he pointed at one of the men around Dia. As he pointed his collection of blades turned towards the same target. ¡°-Get her out of there.¡±


    The man nodded rapidly and though Dia looked uncertain and scared once a knife came out, she managed to hold it in as the man cut the net enough for her to chaotically flail herself out of it. As the net fell to the ground she darted towards Sam, going quadruped letting her easily make it under the logs used to fence the area in, finding herself next to Sam seconds later.


    This put Sam slightly at ease. Using the time as he waited for the reward to calculate he checked out what he could find on Ironhand. He was decked out with solid gear. All his stuff was focused on adding strength and health. Everything was percentile so didn¡¯t do much for Sam. Confirming that his Armour¡¯s Defence rating was 60, it explained why the damage making it through didn¡¯t do much, he needed critical hits with the Moonblade to just do a tiny bit of damage. The Armour also had a health-regeneration ability... which explained a lot. If Sam hadn¡¯t considered an indirect approach, the trickle damage he could get through would never work.


    [ Calculations complete. ]


    Sam smiled, this was going to be good. No matter what the rewards were, he just wanted out of there.


    [ Reward upgrading possible.


    The Dominant Player can sacrifice Player Gear to upgrade the reward(s).


    -The rewards will not be shown until confirmed. ]


    His expression soured, though he was fine with the logic of upgrading rewards... not knowing what they meant that an upgrade might not be good. What if the upgrade changed the math? An example from gaming terms is that if something gave you +50 health, that would be worse than something giving you +50% health. At Sam¡¯s level, the former would be much more worth than the latter.


    Pondering for a moment, he considered one simple thing. An increased reward boosted by other gear should be... better, and even if he got shit items to him he could sell them. Though he could do the same with things he had gathered on the island already... this felt better... somehow?


    As his mind wandered, he considered what would happen to Dia. Elara was with him on Earth, but she was hatched, Dia was possibly classified as a Dungeon mob, and he didn¡¯t know how that would work out. Focusing on this, the System reacted.


    [ Bonded Beastfolk; Dia, is bound to the Player and will leave the island at the same time. ]


    That was a relief to see that she¡¯d come with him, even though he hadn¡¯t considered how the world would react to a Beastfolk tagging along. Elara was different as she was ¡®just a snake¡¯, but an actual Beastfolk that people tend to slaughter in Dungeons...


    Well, he¡¯d cross that bridge when he came to it.


    Considering what he could donate to boost the reward, the system was ever nice to help, a window popped up letting him select items. Everything he was wearing came up on the list first, followed by the items left in his cave, the Amulet and Robe, as well as the few items he found on Mr. Ironhand.


    He did not need any of the items he was not wearing, he could argue that some items could be worth it on Dia, but at the moment he wanted to be boosted. The results of the current fight had him want more power, if the System was going to throw more shit at him he needed what he could get. Though boosting allies was also a good idea, given the amount of solo shit he has had to endure lately he might need to focus on himself first. Especially when it came to the possibility of skills or personal power that couldn¡¯t be stolen.


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    Selecting things from the list, he sacrificed the robe, amulet and everything he found on Ironhand. He could sell it and buy things from TAC or something, but this felt more appropriate at the moment.


    As soon as he accepted the window closed, the gear on the dead Ironhand disappeared in a brief flash of light and disintegrated into particles, leaving a very underdressed corpse with a damaged face.


    [ Upgraded rewards calculated.


    Sacrifice more items? ]


    Denying this, he felt fine with keeping what he was wearing, the only thing he had found on the island he wanted to keep was Dia and the Bleeding Edge dagger.


    [ Quest: The Island - Completed


    Reward: Skill; Telekinetic Boost.


    Reward: Skill; Spiritual Health.


    Reward: +6 levels. ]


    Sam needed a moment to process this, the small window listed a few things without much explanation. He understood the levels, but the other parts he was not entirely certain about.


    [ Telekinetic Boost


    For up to 23 seconds, the weight limit of Psyhand is increased by 10 times.


    -Time calculation: 1:1 Spirit in seconds.


    -Does not affect Utility Skill Force Pulse.


    -Force Throw consumes 5 seconds per use.


    -Each second needs 2 hours to recharge. ]


    [ Spiritual Health


    Allows the Player¡¯s health to calculate off Spirit instead of Vitality. ]


    This caused a lot of thoughts in Sam¡¯s mind. He had spoken about the latter with Janik a while ago, it would be perfect for him. This meant that he could just dump points into Spirit and gain both health and power to his powers.


    The Telekinetic Boost was also amazing, his current weight limit was just over 10kg/22lbs, but activating this would increase that tenfold. Though it wouldn¡¯t affect the Force Pulse, and through it ¡®ate¡¯ up 5 seconds of use...


    He could finally throw people!


    Or even fly by lifting himself.


    These two skills opened up so many changes that it was almost dumb, it made the whole ordeal on the island almost worth it. He could perhaps have gone without the danger and threat of death every few days, but this was a solid reward. And considering how much XP he needed to level at this point, just getting five levels slapped on was amazing.


    Accepting the quest rewards and slapping all 6 points into Spirit, he was excited to see the changes.


    [ HP: 165 / 165 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€ ]


    [ XP to lv.21: 44 109 / 5 242 880 ????????? ]


    [ Psyhand weight: 580g/1.2lbs ]


    [ Level 20 reached third class skill granted: Improved Area of Influence. ]


    [ Improved Area of Influence


    Base size and boost size doubled.


    Base: 20m/60ft


    Increase: +3m/10ft per Energy. ]


    Quick math, with his new Spirit of 29, giving him 28 Psyhands, and with the new weight his new max carry weight was in total over 16kg/35.2lbs. However, the most substantial upgrade was his health which had increased over 4 times!


    An adding a considerable upgrade to his range, which was passive for hitting Level 20, he was feeling extra good!


    This also meant that Dia would boost up in power as soon as he got some XP to share, as she now had five levels to cover, considering how little XP she needed that shouldn¡¯t be a problem.


    He was almost struggling to contain his eagerness to test all of this. 22 seconds of lifting someone, if he lifts someone upwards for 17 seconds and then throws them... He wasn¡¯t sure how fast his Psyhands could lift someone but this was terrifying, and he loved it.


    [ Do you wish to leave the island? ]


    This message was the final drop overflowing Sam¡¯s cup of feeling great. Just getting off the island was what he wanted, almost more than anything. But he had a brief thought of what he promised the other Players, letting them leave. And as normal the System answered his thoughts.


    [ Quest The Island is complete, portals will open letting Players return. ]


    ¡°Ah.¡± Sam let out to himself, which was the first sound he had made since ordering Dia¡¯s release. She reacted to him with perked ears and a curious expression. Sam considered that she might not be used to people looking at the Status screens for that long, as you look somewhat out of it when you do.


    Telekinetically sheathing all his weapons on himself before accepting the offer to leave the island, he didn¡¯t care if people chose to enter the portals or not, he had done what he said which was plenty for him.


    It only took a few seconds before the warm light started washing over him, Dia panicked but as Sam placed his hand on her head she calmed down considerably to the point that she just looked sceptical.


    Feeling the jolt of energy move him, he felt the air change, the heat changed and everything just became different. The light faded and he took a look around.


    The first thing he saw was that he confirmed Dia¡¯s presence, she was confused about the location change but fine outside of that. He also quickly found out that they had been returned to where he disappeared from, before the final room in the starter dungeon.


    His mind used a few moments to process everything until it all snapped in place.


    ¡°Elara?!¡± He shouted for his serpentine companion. Dia cocked her head at his shouting, but there was no response. The starter dungeon wasn¡¯t that large, so he opted to shout louder.


    ¡°Elara?!!¡± But again there was no response.


    Being near the end room of the Dungeon, Dia reacted to some sounds coming from the exit room, and it didn¡¯t take long before some Goblins came running. The boss, a kobold and... Sam barely cared as he swung his weapons for the starter creatures, they all fell before he could care to properly turn towards them. He didn¡¯t even get any XP from them, which made a lot of sense.


    [ Dungeon cleared


    Rewards:


    10 xp


    1x Aether crystal


    Bonus rewards for optional step:


    5 xp


    Random Box - X. ]


    As normal the box and crystal manifested in the air before him. Grabbing them with some Psyhands they remained hovering in the air. The XP was so stupidly negligible that he could almost just ignore it. With the 50% split that would hit about a total of 7xp each...


    [ Bonded Beastfolk; Dia, leveled up. ]


    [ Dia XP to lv.11: 7 / 384  ????? ]


    [ Dia reached level 10, skill unlocked: Spin Kick ]


    [ Spin Kick


    Takes advantage of dexterity and centrifugal force in a single spin-kick, delivering considerably higher damage (2x) at the cost of being off balance for a few seconds after.


    -Cooldown: 1 hour. ]


    Sam had to laugh, it was amusing that this triggered the level-up. Though it made sense, she was capped before so it just took a poke to send that happening. The Spin kick also looked like a good finishing move, or to be mixed in after a flurry and ally combat.


    He put her extra point into Vitality for now, her damage was fine, and he wanted her to have a higher survival chance, at least until he got her some armour.


    Opening the Random Box to get that out of the way, it produced a single Aether crystal, giving him two. He didn¡¯t think much about it, this was the starter dungeon after all.


    Considering just leaving and having the auto-eject function that Janik explained before sending Elara out, he noticed that her health was still greyed out, she was most likely not in here. Did she make it out? She was small and sneaky enough so she could have just left... unless she was killed and eaten... But wouldn¡¯t the health bar disappear then? He was gone for a few days, a week maybe? He somewhat lost track but it would be enough time for her to be devoured...


    Deciding to exit the Dungeon, he¡¯d see her health connect if she was out there, or he could wait to see what happened after if not. Heading for the exit portal he felt almost uncertain about what was going to happen now, he had been gone for about a week.


    Going over to the exit area and accepting the question to leave the Dungeon, they both were covered in the white light before the change of air signalled their moving.

 Ch.047 - Kick

    As the white light and warmth faded, he saw that he got some looks from the people around them. Coming out with a Beastfolk, a naked one at that, must seem weird. The few other Beastfolk he had seen that followed Players were at least dressed slightly. He would have to mend that shortly. But for now, Dia didn¡¯t seem to mind, or just didn¡¯t care, and he wasn¡¯t stopped as much as he expected from the guards.


    [ Companion Elara, level up +3! ]


    [ Elara reached level 10, skill unlocked: Venom 2. ]


    [ Venom 2


    Type: Injury


    Effect: Damage


    As the venom enters a wound, injected, smeared or otherwise, the victim must succeed in resisting it or take the Venom¡¯s effect every few seconds. This lasts until the target dies, is cured or manages to resist.


    -Can be harvested and used on weapons.


    -Boosted damage and resistance difficulty compared to Venom 1. ]


    This caught Sam off guard, he was happy to see it, but it came out of nowhere. The positive was that this meant she was alive, which was a massive relief. The other was that the XP he amassed on the Island seemed to be shared once he arrived. Though perhaps not the flat levels he was given as that¡¯s not shareable. A quick check found that the important numbers of [ Venom 2 ] seemed to be 5, compared to the 1 of Rank 1, so the resistance math based itself around 5 instead of 1, and the damage itself was 5 a round. This was a good upgrade.


    In either case, this meant that she should be somewhere, but... where this was, was anyone¡¯s guess. He would have called Janik but he had no idea where his phone was, he had it when he was sent to the island a while ago, the flashlight he had was also gone so he didn¡¯t consider seeing them again.


    He¡¯d just get a new phone later, he could afford one now without many problems, but he needed to contact Janik before anything else. The reception should have a way for him to do just that. Sam started speed-walking in the direction of the reception, Dia looked extremely out of place, almost terrified of things going on around her, other Players, weird floors, and fluorescent lighting. All things alien to her.


    She opted to walk very close to Sam, walking on her hind legs and grabbing onto his arm, feeling at least a sliver of safety in his presence.


    Sam was a bit sad that this was how she was introduced to Earth, but a bit through accidental lack of planning, he ended up rushing this. Since the first shock had already happened she would somewhat have to just take it...


    Finding his way to the reception he was happy to see that there wasn¡¯t a queue so he could just walk up to them.


    ¡°Good day, how can I help you.¡± The practised sentence came from the middle-aged woman behind the desk.


    ¡°Well... I need to register her as my companion, I also need to contact another player, my phone is broken and... well... it¡¯s important.¡± Sam looked a bit rushed, in contrast to the scared Dia and the extremely chill and collected receptionist.


    ¡°Certainly, who are you trying to contact?¡± She handled these things easily enough like it was something she did every day.


    Mentioning Janik¡¯s name, he was told that due to not being on the emergency contacts list, they couldn¡¯t just let Sam speak with him, but they could send Janik a message on Sam¡¯s behalf. Registering Dia was just as easy as with Elara, the only thing she recommended was to get her dressed, at the very least to a modest level. Sam was also told that the room was still in his name and had drawn payments since he requested it two months ago.


    ¡°Hold on. Two months?¡±


    ¡°Yes, according to the notes here, room service explained that the room looked untouched, save a snake companion the first week. After that, it looked as clean as the day before.¡±


    This bit of info had Sam mentally phase out for a moment, two months? But he was just gone for a week... Or so...


    ¡°Sir?¡± The woman looked hesitant but needed to metaphorically bring him back. ¡°What message should I send?¡± She looked ready to type something and seemed to just want to get this task over with.


    ¡°Just send that Sam is back and that I¡¯m in my room. My phone is broken so if he could come see me.¡± This was the easiest to handle at the moment.


    ¡°I also want to just sell these, add it to my account.¡±


    Placing the two Aether Crystals and the three Goblin cores from the island on the desk he just left for his room, not considering that this wasn¡¯t the correct desk to do so.


    Dia hadn¡¯t let go of his arm all this time and followed him into an elevator, which had her practically vibrating in a strange curious state of fear. She often looked back at Sam with her ears flat to her head and tails between her legs, each time she looked at him with fear in her eyes it lessened slightly, seeing how he didn¡¯t seem to care about the current situation. But it only lasted for a few seconds before it built up again, repeating the cycle.


    He found himself in his room after not long, he was a bit in a daze, enough to not properly notice Dia¡¯s condition, she was there with him and following him, holding onto him, that was about what he considered at the moment. Everything changed once the door opened, looking into the apartment-like room the thought of a shower came to mind. Oh gods that was going to be good.


    Almost rushing into the bathroom with Dia in tow he almost tore his clothing off, to Dia¡¯s extreme surprise.


    ¡°Sa!¡± She exclaimed his name in surprise, looking extremely confused. When he went into the shower, which in her eyes must have been extremely weird, he almost felt like years of fatigue was running off his body with the water. Dia stood outside the shower and looked at him with wide and confused eyes, smelling the scents coming from the tiny transparent room with flowing water seemingly coming from nowhere. Sam held his hand out for her to take it, and she used several long seconds to persuade herself to do so.


    Once she took his hand he slowly pulled her into the warm water, she tried pulling her hand out multiple times, but reassuring words from Sam managed to persuade her slowly, and she found herself in the warm water as well. Seeming to enjoy it once she dared to step into the weird tiny room, Sam took this time to help wash her properly for possibly the first time, shampoo and conditioner were complimentary after all.


    Sometime later, Sam found himself teaching Dia how a hairdryer worked, she had a lot of furs and this would probably cut down drying time considerably. She was obsessed with licking her fur as she smelled it over and over. She almost looked confused by her scent.


    ¡°No, don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s fine, you smell great!¡± Sam commented as he used a brush alongside the hairdryer to get water out of her fur.


    ¡°Var fruk kima!¡± She sounded like she complained as she was smelling her arm. Sam knew that the first two words meant ¡®I¡¯ and ¡®Smell¡¯, or perhaps nose, but it sounded like she was complaining about the smell. Probably the first time her fur had smelled like that.


    He had to stop her from licking her fur as he dried it, even though she wanted to again and again. Her natural grooming instincts were problematic to deal with when it came to hygiene like this. Or rather, it wasn¡¯t a problem, he expected her to continue grooming herself as she had done so far in her life, but perhaps this could at least make things easier for her, and make her cleaner than licking could ever do.


    Having cleaned his gear it was currently drying in the bathtub, it felt like the best place to do that kind of thing. The blades were simple enough but the main issue was the armour, it took a while. He had dressed up in spare clothing, as his bag was in the room still.


    In the middle of drying Dia, the door rang and an overzealous knocking followed. Sam expected this to be Janik.


    Sam was dressed, and though Dia had a towel around her, it fell as soon as she got up after he took a few steps away, not being used to clothing yet that would have to come later. She followed only a few steps behind him as he walked over to the door, opening it he saw Janik with a pained expression. Immediately as their eyes met Janik stepped in and grabbed Sam in a bearhug, leaving him to struggle against it.


    ¡°Sa!¡± Dia panicked through the situation, someone grabbed Sam and she seemed to react accordingly. Before Sam could say anything through the tight hug from his friend, she had already stepped forward into a quick spin, her leg extended at the peak of the movement, managing to connect with Janik who didn¡¯t see this coming.


    Janik¡¯s grasp of Sam loosened as Dia¡¯s leg transferred enough force into his face to send him flying back, landing on the floor and tumbling into the wall out in the hallway, knickknacks flying off his body and landing across the floor. Forcing the man following him to step aside to avoid getting hit.


    ¡°Vrana thrar zar. Var shok lin!¡± She shouted angrily at Janik, seeming to be pissed that someone attacked him.


    ¡°Dia.¡± Sam commented harshly at her, forcing her to look at him, her ears flattened as she saw him less than happy like she did something wrong.


    ¡°Sa... Vraka frana?¡± Her whole aura changed, only two seconds ago she was ready to face the world in head-to-head combat, but now she looked meek, submissive and seemed to have understood she did something wrong.


    ¡°Ok... I... didn¡¯t expect that...¡± Janik commented through some coughs. He looked fine... relatively speaking. Some of his lost-and-found¡¯ness had fallen off in the shock and, though on the floor was relatively undamaged. Getting back to his feet surprisingly fine, some damage lingered on his face but he looked fine all things considered. As he got up his hands slowly moved towards his swords. ¡°Should I be worried or are we fine?¡±


    Janik had understood this was not a proper attack, or he would have pulled his swords without checking, but at the same time, he wasn¡¯t sure what was going on, a smart man clarified while ready, which was just what he did.


    Sam sighed as he patted Dia on her head, she didn¡¯t perk up but her submissive and weak-looking nature faded slightly in favour of confusion.


    ¡°Come in, I¡¯ll explain what¡¯s going on. It¡¯s safe, she¡¯s just a bit... protective, I guess.¡± Sam had to force a smile, he didn¡¯t even know how to communicate to her that Janik was a friend, not a word he was familiar with yet.


    Leading them into the room, Janik followed eagerly but with a modest amount of hesitation. A 16 or so-year-old boy followed him into the room, the boy had a muscular and athletic build, short hair and wore a robe with a staff in his hand. Closing the door after picking up the knickknacks he lead them to a table with some chairs around it.


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    Moving and halfway forcing Dia to sit down, she looked strangely uncomfortable sitting on an actual chair, struggling to decide what to do with her tails she didn¡¯t seem to like it, but did as told by Sam regardless.


    ¡°Sooo.... who is this? What went on? Where have you been for two months?¡± Janik listed all the important questions at the same time.


    ¡°I have my own questions... Who is this? Where is Elara?¡± Sam smiled back a bit smartass-like.


    ¡°No, fuck you, you go first.¡± Janik commanded, his smile being nowhere to be found, though he looked somewhat annoyed and angry, it was more in the sense of curiosity and need to know than honest anger.


    Sam sighed and explained what happened. He started in the Dungeon with Elara, suddenly being moved by the System to the island. He explained what he did, what he had to do, what the people did towards him and so on. Explaining that he found Dia in a cage, near death, she bonded with him after he nurtured her back to health and now she¡¯s bonded to him through the system. Not going into depth just how close they became, he was no stranger to speaking about intimacy but it felt kind of weird when it involved himself, though he did explain the language barrier and that he had learned some words, just not enough to properly talk to her. He continued with having to kill a lot of Players, especially the leaders to complete the quest. He avoided touching on just how many he had to kill and the fact that he didn¡¯t consider killing them any different from the Goblins. In the end, through explaining how he had to kill the more powerful Players with cleverness and... frankly horrible methods, Janik¡¯s expression remained surprisingly poker-face-like the whole explanation as he took it in.


    The story ended with having arrived back in his room and casually explaining that Dia probably thought the hug was an attack and panicked.


    ¡°Jesus Christ...¡± Janik replied to the whole story afterwards. ¡°I¡¯ll forgive your friend for the kick but jeez....¡± He didn¡¯t seem to know what to say. ¡°I had hope the first few weeks but... I¡¯ll admit I didn¡¯t expect to see you again at all after the first month.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, what the fuck is the deal with that? I didn¡¯t spend more than max a week on the island... But the receptionist said two months?!¡± Sam exclaimed through annoyance, not because of his money having ticked away, but because this was just weird.


    Janik seemed to have taken this as his turn to explain. He didn¡¯t know why there was a time difference, or if he was just unconscious for over a month. But since Janik went back home to rest after following the possessed Sam around for a few days, it has been two months.


    Elara was adamant that she wanted to stay in the room until Sam came back, she felt the link was there still and refused to consider that he had died. However, after the first week of Janik checking in on her, she decided that staying there might not be productive. He offered her to come with him and she reluctantly accepted. She was kept safe with Janik¡¯s kids, he briefly explained that he¡¯s the guardian of 17 kids in a large house, which is why he needs so much money, so she¡¯s kind of there to help the youngest ones be entertained. Janik would do it himself but with Ethan, the 17-year-old kid that followed him, having awakened as a Player, Janik was busy making sure that Ethan was doing things right and training him.


    ¡°Elara is surprisingly good with the kids. Grace always loved animals, we even volunteer at an animal shelter from time to time when I have the time, but lately, that hasn¡¯t been as often as I¡¯d like, but Elara... as a snake, has really done well for her. I¡¯ll have them come over with her, it... it was frankly a problem having Elara not rush back here when she felt your return, but I thought it was smart to check things out first. She.... I¡¯ll admit that I had her wait for Grace¡¯s sake... ¡± Janik¡¯s proper smile returned, it seemed that Elara had found something to do and was helping Janik out. But Janik didn¡¯t seem to try and hide that he was focusing on the kids, which Sam couldn¡¯t blame him for.


    After a second of processing, Janik continued.


    ¡°She told me that she waited for you to return to the dungeon for a while, she hid in some rubble. She was in there at least for a few days before she got TAC to contact me. She didn¡¯t have any problem leaving, the emergency exit function worked fine for her, though she had some slight problems getting people to help her in TAC.¡± He chuckled, seeming to recall something from that scene.


    Sam couldn¡¯t blame her, he could imagine how others would react to a snake, a talking snake, trying to contact a Player...


    ¡°So, besides the fact that I was gone for two months, everything is good, then?¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah-¡± Janik replied, looking happy again. ¡°-Ethan is coming along well, he¡¯s pretty good at this, but he needs to get better at thinking safely.¡± Janik gave Ethan a fake punch in the shoulder as he mentioned that, Ethan looked a bit embarrassed at the parent-like behaviour from Janik.


    Sam felt kind of strange seeing Janik like this, but it did put things into perspective, his protective behaviour and paranoia about safety.


    ¡°By the way... What... what did you get for winning the island?¡± Janik asked.


    Sam had explained that he was rewarded for completing the quest, but he didn¡¯t detail exactly what he got.


    ¡°I got a timed skill that increases my weight limit tenfold. My health is now calculated based on Spirit and I got a few levels. As I hit Level 20 I also got my next class upgrade; a range increase to my Area.¡± Sam abstracted things down to the simplest explanation of the skills'' functions.


    ¡°Hold on...¡± Janik looked at Sam with a different expression. ¡°Holyfuyck your health is higher... Didn¡¯t it used to be 30something?¡± He looked happy but confused.


    ¡°Yes, it was 35 when we last spoke, a decent upgrade.¡±


    ¡°And... you¡¯re level twenty now...¡± Janik¡¯s expression faded into a deadpan annoyance, not trying to hide his envy. ¡°Well... A week of work to surpass me that much isn¡¯t annoying at all...¡±


    ¡°It was a week of almost dying every other day. And I paid for the skill upgrade... I think... with lots of powerful items.¡± Sam tried to defend himself, that this wasn¡¯t just a walk in the park.


    ¡°And on top of that, you got yourself a wife.¡± Janik gestured towards Dia, who jumped in her chair at the hand suddenly waving her way.


    ¡°I guess I sort of did?¡± Sam replied honestly. He didn¡¯t exactly know what Dia saw him as, a husband, a mate, a lover, a master or just something else. ¡°The word she refers to me with, my best guess is that it means mate.¡±


    Janik¡¯s face twisted into a wide and lecherous smile. ¡°You did it, didn¡¯t you.¡± He leant forward with his elbows on the table, fingers braided together in front of his mouth as he gave him a very interested expression. ¡°How was it?¡±


    ¡°None of your fucking business, that¡¯s how it was.¡± Sam smiled back at him. For a brief moment, he recalled that after the ¡®Rental¡¯ incident, he was fine sharing details regarding the Harpy and Kobold, but for some reason, it didn¡¯t feel right now.


    ¡°Well... fucking be that way.¡± Janik fake-moped as a result.


    They stared at each other for a few seconds with fake sour expressions before sharing laughter. Ethan joined in alongside, getting the shared bullshit that was going on.


    ¡°But, I have to admit...¡± Janik started hesitantly. ¡°With the experiences you got on the island, I would like to spar with you again and see where you¡¯re at with everything. If we¡¯re to continue together I think that¡¯s a good idea.¡±


    Sam couldn¡¯t argue his logic, but he did wonder how that would play alongside Ethan.


    ¡°How will that work with him?¡± Nodding towards Ethan, speaking about him as if he wasn¡¯t there. ¡°Is he trained, will he come with us or...?¡± His voice was filled with uncertainty.


    ¡°No.¡± A hard and definitive soundbyte from Janik. ¡°I would love to have him with me... but he¡¯s not going to come with us doing the shit I expect us to be doing, not yet. Once he gets some more levels and power, we can consider it.¡±


    As Janik explained, Ethan sat there and nodded in agreement, it seemed that Janik¡¯s words made sense to him as well.


    ¡°But, I assume you¡¯re tired-¡± Janik¡¯s eyes trailed off to Dia before returning to Sam. ¡°-and other things.¡± Sporting a wide grin he continued. ¡°So I think we¡¯ll come back tomorrow. I¡¯ll bring Elara then, I¡¯ll heal up as your girl has one hell of a kick, and we¡¯ll start with a spar after breakfast. How does that sound?¡±


    It all sounded good to Sam, he just wanted to sleep now, fatigue was catching up with him with a vengeance and with his gear drying he might as well get some rest.


    ¡°That sounds fine, but... out of curiosity, I have only looked at the numbers in her sheet for the kick, how was it?¡± Sam¡¯s smile was heavy with schadenfreude towards Janik. Since he was fine he decided to take enjoyment out of the mental image of the tiny Dia, two heads shorter than him, sending him flying into the next room.


    ¡°I¡¯m lucky I¡¯m still wearing my armour. Defence of 46, still got 54 damage through it. It fucking hurt and without this good of an armour, a crit could have killed me.¡± Janik¡¯s expression was a bit hard to read, it had a mix of weird pride on Sam¡¯s behalf, but a slight hint of fear. ¡°To be honest... Even with my armour, it could have killed me if she critically hit me...¡±


    This put things into context for Sam. He didn¡¯t know Janik¡¯s health, but according to the numbers in her info, the Spin Kick did double normal damage, but left her off balance and probably vulnerable for a short while, it also took longer to perform than a normal kick, but her kick was listed as an expected damage of 50, so the Spin Kick would do 100, a critical hit would be 200 damage... That was considerable, even with an armour of 46 that would be 154 damage peeking through.


    He would have loved having that in the duels on the Island.


    He would have to train with her at some point, get a feel for how she fights so they could fight together, but now he could metaphorically hear a siren song from the soft bed. Just a bed not made out of moss on a stone floor.


    Janik was metaphorically thrown out, as was Ethan. It wasn¡¯t too late in the evening but Sam didn¡¯t care. Not feeling incredibly hungry, knowing that everyone was fine and safe on Earth, was enough for him to let fatigue catch up.


    As the door was locked he slowly headed into bed, Dia confusingly followed him, only to give him the most surprised and ecstatic expression as they crawled into bed. Spending minutes bouncing around in it like a child.


    The last thing he remembered was Dia finally calming down before she snuggled up against him

 Ch.048 - Druk

    ¡°Sa! Sa!¡± Dia woke Sam up with his name shouted in a pleading voice.


    He was glad that he had remembered to pull the blinds in front of the window, so the only thing the outside sun did was gleam through ever so slightly around the sides.


    ¡°Sa!!¡± She sounded desperate as she almost shook him awake.


    ¡°What?¡± He was still half asleep, but he managed a question through being shaken awake.


    ¡°Var tan druk!¡± She replied with urgency.


    He could see in her eyes that this was important, but he needed a moment to analyse the words. Var Tan Druk... Var was herself, Tan... he didn¡¯t know but Druk was... Toilet?


    His eyes suddenly opened properly with realization. Checking the time it was 9 in the morning, they arrived in the afternoon yesterday, and they had both been without a toilet for a while, but her necessity might be more panicked as she had no idea where to go or what to do.


    He had to chuckle a bit, which earned him another annoyed shake from the desperate Dia.


    Getting out of bed he nodded out of the room. ¡°Come, I¡¯ll show you.¡± Pondering for a moment, he pointed and repeated. ¡°Var druk.¡± As he understood it, this kind of meant ¡®I toilet¡¯ or something akin to that.


    Dia¡¯s eyes widened as a smile grew on her face, he didn¡¯t know if it was for speaking to her in her words or the promise of somewhere to relieve herself, but he decided to take it.


    Leading her into the bathroom, he gestured to the toilet. He didn''t expect her to understand it properly, and having no shame he decided to just show her. Undoing his pants, which he forgot to take off before bed, he sat down and handled his simple business. After which he pressed the button which flushed.


    Her eyes were wide with distrust. She didn¡¯t like it, smelling it she didn¡¯t seem to like it at all. And it took considerable coaxing from Sam to have her sit down on it properly. Now, he hadn¡¯t spent time with women on the toilet before but there was a limit to how it could work. He also, as a teen, had unrestricted access to the internet so it wasn¡¯t like he hadn¡¯t passively learned this.


    Eventually, she got her stuff done, but she didn¡¯t seem to entirely agree with how things disappeared after she was done. Sam expected this to be somewhat related to the animal instinct of marking her territory or something. He didn¡¯t know and he didn¡¯t have the chance to ask her properly. Teaching her about toilet paper was a problem as well, leading him to realize that there were a lot of hygiene things he needed to show and teach her. Things like brushing teeth would probably be weird for her.


    Making a mental note of that now, he realised there was something else before that. He needed clothing for her, as the receptionist stated yesterday. Though she would probably not care if she were to walk around naked, people around her might care and... Sam had to internally admit that he didn¡¯t want her to walk around naked either, in a strange way for himself... This was an odd feeling.


    The problem with this was that he didn¡¯t have any idea where to even begin with that. Considering her body, especially with her digitigrade legs and tail, would probably not work well with full pants. Perhaps shorts? Something like a swimsuit-like thing could probably work but... that strangely enough made things almost more sexual... He pondered many different attires, but in the end, the most likely, somewhat normal, clothing he could consider was a simple dress.


    There was a knock on the door, a very enthusiastic knock that lasted longer than it should have. It was clear that this was Janik.


    Opening the door Sam got a single second of time to see Janik before something green sprung from his shoulder towards him.


    ¡°Dia, no!¡± Sam shouted before he was ¡®attacked¡¯ by Elara, who proceeded to coil herself around his neck and push the top of her head against the underside of his chin, repeatedly rubbing and pushing her head against him, giving a wide smiled snake-hug.


    Having learned from yesterday he was afraid that Dia would see the ¡®attacking snake¡¯ and just straight up end her existence.


    A glance towards Dia confirmed that she had taken a few steps towards them already, but looked at him with incredibly uncertain eyes.


    ¡°Good fuck.. That was close...¡± Sam commented, relieved.


    ¡°Oh.. shit... Should have seen that coming...¡± Janik commented apologetically. Having tasted a kick from her the day before, the damage that made it through his armour would be enough to take out Elara, he just hadn¡¯t considered it.


    ¡°Hello there.¡± Sam smiled at his serpentine friend as he moved his hand down to pick up the front part of her, bringing her face up into view.


    She had a wide and happy smile, even shedding a few tears through her smile, something Sam found strangely interesting. ¡°Welcome back, Master. I have been waiting for you.¡± She coiled herself back around his neck and pressed her face against it, rubbing it almost like a cat wanting to cuddle someone.


    ¡°I heard. I trust that Janik has been treating you well?¡± Sam was incredibly touched by her display. Though they hadn¡¯t spent that much time together it was clear that she had strongly bonded with him.


    ¡°I have spent most of my time with Grace, the kids are good, so even when Janik¡¯s out I have been cared for.¡± She replied, not stopping her rubbing at all.


    ¡°I¡¯m glad to hear that.¡± Sam smiled back but as he did, he suddenly reacted to a smell in the air.


    Janik realised Sam¡¯s expression and lifted a to-go package from the local burger shop.


    ¡°I thought you wanted something greasy and nasty after a week of just eating fish and fruit.¡± He smiled widely, knowing very well this didn¡¯t come close to being considered healthy food. ¡°I brought enough for you and your wife.¡±


    Sam stopped a moment, it felt weird having Dia referred to as his wife... It.. might be correct... The special food she gave to him was probably some marriage ritual, and they did solidify their union that night so...


    ¡°You know... It really feels weird referring to her as my wife...¡±


    ¡°Well, isn¡¯t she?¡± Janik teased, having the widest of shit-eating grins on the planet.


    ¡°I mean... I guess... but...¡± Sam felt oddly uncomfortable with this context. He didn¡¯t hide that he liked her, it wasn¡¯t even that uncommon to like the non-humans in the world after the Towers came, the Brothel¡¯s roster was a good example of that. But it just felt odd, perhaps due to their lack of communication.


    ¡°Fine, fine. I¡¯ll stop teasing you. Based on your explanation of the fancy food she gave you, I¡¯m sure she thinks of you as her husband, mate, whatever. But I¡¯ll stop.¡± Janik smiled, he had his fun but he was the person who was fine taking a piss at things but as soon as it wasn¡¯t fun for the ¡®target¡¯, it wasn¡¯t a good joke anymore.


    Instead, he walked over to the table and placed the grease bomb that was the takeaway box on it, opening it to let the smells flow out. He also placed a small bag on the table next to it.


    ¡°You owe me $900.¡±


    ¡°Excuse me?!¡± Sam broke out in surprise. ¡°That¡¯s a fucking expensive burger.¡±


    ¡°No, idiot. I got you a new phone. Thought you would need one as your old 1862 model probably didn¡¯t survive your island.¡± Janik smiled a bit at his joke about the old phone being from hundreds of years ago.


    ¡°Ah.. well... I suppose that makes more sense...¡±


    Before Sam could consider checking out a new phone, he was drawn to the meal on the table instead. As was Dia, her eyes were wide, intrigued and curious. He expected her sense of smell having introduced her to new things from that box. The concept of fried food, as in the potato fries, was probably as alien to her as the fluorescent lighting.


    The kitchen part of the room he was renting was fully furnished with cutlery and everything. He got some plates and placed them on the table, spreading out some of the food. Giving Janik a questioning look when dividing it had him shaking his head, it seemed to be all for Sam and Dia.


    Dia smelled the burger with hesitation and interest, having to wipe some saliva as she did. Sam simply sat down and picked it up, taking a big bite.


    This was... amazing. In his perception, it was only a week since he was on Earth, but that week had been less than calm. It was something unexpectedly calming and amazing eating something as modern and processed as a fast-food burger. Taking a few fries he shoved them into his mouth well before he was done chewing the burger still in there. As he chewed the collection of things, he also pulled off a small piece of meat and held it up for Elara to take, which she did, extending herself a little from her perch around his neck she toothlessly bit the piece of meat and started swallowing it.


    Dia hesitantly sat down and inspected things, struggling a bit with holding the burger right she tried to mimic Sam, but in the end, she took a smaller bite and her expression was amazing. A mixture of a happy smile, uncertainty, amazement and contentment all mixed up in one. It didn¡¯t take long for her to ignore how to hold the burger in favour of just letting her inner animal take over, dropping it back on the plate she started eating it without her hands like the canine she was. Sam couldn¡¯t help but laugh, being joined by Janik.


    ¡°I think your girl needs to learn some table manners.¡± Janik commented through some chuckles.


    ¡°She learned what a toilet was earlier today, I think we¡¯ll take one thing at a time.¡± Sam replied with a fun tidbit from earlier the same day.


    ¡°Oh... I didn¡¯t consider that... Potty-training a Beastfolk sounds... oddly weird.¡±


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    ¡°Yeah, it helped that I showed her first but she struggled a bit to agree with it.¡± Sam continued. Given that Janik was the guardian of 17 kids, it felt right that he had been through potty training more than once.


    ¡°Oh, on that topic.¡± Janik commented as he walked around the table to the bag the phone was in. He took out the small white box with the gadget in but also took out a bundled-up attire.


    ¡°I brought one of Emma¡¯s old dresses. She¡¯s outgrown it but they have somewhat the same build, thought it might fit.¡± He found the shoulder area of the dress and let the rest go, having it unfurl into its full size.


    Sam had a look, it looked simple, a dress that would hang tight around the torso but loosely from the waist down. It was made of a rougher than cotton fabric and looked somewhat sturdy but still relatively nice. It was a practical dress before it looked overly frilly or fancy.


    ¡°It¡¯s a while until Sophia can get into it, so thought it could be nice to at least see, that way she doesn¡¯t have to walk around naked.¡±


    Janik held the dress slightly towards Dia, almost like he expected to measure it up against her, but he pulled it back a second after as he saw the canid eat a burger like an animal.


    ¡°Perhaps... we¡¯ll check that after she¡¯s done...¡±


    This had both Janik and Sam laugh a bit on Dia¡¯s behalf. She didn¡¯t seem to care and was busy consuming the burger and fries.


    They continued eating until they were done, after which Sam decided to wash off the worst of the food gore from Dia¡¯s face with a wet towel, she insisted on cleaning herself from that point by refusing to let him rub the cloth against her face.


    Unpacking the phone that Janik had gotten, it was a decently modern phone, with a rugged strong design, it wasn¡¯t the fastest or the best, but it was plenty good for modern uses. It was advertised towards Players because of its rugged and durable construction, also using a replaceable Aether Crystal battery, giving it quite the lifetime before needing recharging or replacing.


    ¡°You got me a KE Fortis II? I mean...¡±


    Janik broke in before he could continue the sentence. ¡°No, you got yourself one, I expect you to transfer those 900 when you got that thing up and running.¡± He smiled widely.


    Sam wanted to comment, but... he needed a phone and... he had a lot of money to go on, compared to his old life. There was no reason not to get a modern rugged phone now that he was continuing his Player lifestyle.


    They took a moment to get that setup, Janik had more experience with this kind of stuff than Sam, and they got it running soon enough. And as a ¡®test¡¯, in Janik¡¯s words, he could send over the money he owed.


    Sam chuckled and did as requested, he did save him the time to go find one and figure out how to set up everything. And since this phone was newer and had better updates, as well as processing power, he could access many of the TAC services as well.


    ¡°Now-¡± Janik changed the subject once he saw the money coming in on his side, again marking Sam as debt free. ¡°-Since your girl is clean, let¡¯s try to get her less nude.¡±


    He put his phone in his pocket and got the dress, holding it up against Dia¡¯s body, making her stop licking her hands and instead smell the fabric held against her.


    It took some effort to get the dress on Dia, she didn¡¯t seem to like it and had no idea how to move her arms to get it on properly. But with some guidance and Psyhands holding her hands and arms in place, they got the dress on her. It had to be tightened up a little here and there and settled in place to let Dia move her arms around, but in the end, she was wearing clothing for the first time.


    Stretching her body around as she looked at the cloth now covering her body, squatting down to let the lower part pool around her legs she lifted it and smelled it, liked it, before getting back up and pulling at it around her torso.


    ¡°Varka nokar.¡± She looked confused but intrigued. Looking at Sam, Janik then back at the dress she inspected it some more before she walked over to Sam and grabbed his clothing, gently pulling it as she pulled a part of her dress. ¡°Drakor Sa!¡±


    Sam smiled, he had no idea what Drakor meant, but it seemed like she was comparing them so it felt like it would mean something like ¡®similar¡¯ or ¡®the same¡¯.


    He just nodded, hoping he understood it correctly.


    Janik looked at them a bit weirdly. ¡°You... understand her?¡±


    ¡°Not really... But... Well... I know some words, the words that are easier to compare and point to. Her language seems to be somewhat contextual, I... don¡¯t know if there is any grammar, as the same words are used in various cases. Like the word for Nose, I think that¡¯s also used for smell, smelling, scent and so on.¡±


    This was something Sam had puzzled together, he hoped he was right or he would probably be using words very wrong in the future. However, when Dia uses different words, like how when learning the word pointing to his nose, and then to her nose, they used the same word, meaning that the word would mean nose. However, that word was also used when she smelled herself after showering or noticed something and spoke referring to a scent. The same pattern was with other things, so it felt logical.


    ¡°Interesting, so she¡¯d just go ¡®I nose you¡¯ to say that she smells you?¡± Janik asked somewhat rhetorically, it was toned more like he was summarizing for his understanding. ¡°I suppose that makes it kind of easier to learn?¡±


    ¡°For us, yes, but it¡¯s going to be interesting having her learn English in the longer term... The concept of grammar might be very weird to her.¡± Sam smiled with a hint of sadness on her behalf.


    ¡°Well!¡± Janik exclaimed to bring the focus on him as he changed the subject with zero subtlety. ¡°I think you owe me a duel, sparring... a Fight of some kind!¡± He looked pumped and ready.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think I owe you shit. But I suppose we can do some testing.¡± Sam didn¡¯t feel entirely ok with this, but at the same time, he did want to see how his skills had changed.


    Since Janik had already shared that his Defence rating was 46, none of his weapons could make it through except critically hitting, and even then only the Moonblade could make it through. But, if this was a sparring the weapons wouldn¡¯t do direct damage anyway, so they would probably make some point system or ¡®if you get hit you¡¯re out¡¯ kind of thing.


    ¡°Great! Let¡¯s go, I want to fight your girl as well, but... don¡¯t let her kick me like that again...¡± Rubbing his face where the kick landed yesterday, he had healed fine, the Player''s constitution and natural healing were almost cheating in that regard. Though it was less than 20 hours since they spoke yesterday, he probably got some aid in healing if he was back to full health.


    Sam geared up before Janik eagerly led them down to the first floor, Dia seemed to feel awkward when moving around in clothing, when her tails lifted it didn¡¯t do wonders for keeping her covered, but it was good enough for now. Sam felt a weird thought considering introducing her to underwear in the future. Her tails went back down between her legs and her ears flattened out when they went back into the elevator. Latching onto Sam¡¯s arm and having already done this once yesterday seemed to make it a tiny bit better, but she still didn¡¯t like the metal box that weirdly moved them up and down.


    The whole way down, elevator and everything, Janik was doing things on his phone. Glancing over, Sam could see that he was booking a training room, making sure to get one with damage control, he probably wanted to see what Dia could do in a different setting when she¡¯s not blindsinding him.


    They got fewer looks from people now that Dia wore clothing, though not common it also wasn¡¯t entirely uncommon to see tamed monsters around TAC or in Aetheria. Beastmasters, though an uncommon class was still well known. There were even certain beastfolk working on Earth as certain jobs, most even speaking English. So the structure was in place for it, although they were considered second-class citizens unless bound to a Player directly, as a beastfolk or monster bound to a Beastmaster Player would be considered part of his class, so it mattered differently.


    Janik entered the door as soon as they had navigated the hallways to the room he had booked. Taking his swords off his hips he took out two training weapons that somewhat matched their size instead. Sam still had the homemade wooden and bark scabbards for most of his weapons, they served a purpose and he hadn¡¯t taken the time to replace them yet. But mimicking Janik he took all the blades out of their scabbards and placed them next to his swords. It looked kind of weird, having Janik place two swords in a corner, and Sam floating 12 weapons into a pile next to it.


    Sam used a moment to try and make Dia understand that this was training... He didn¡¯t know what words to use for it but made a ¡®stay here¡¯ motion that had worked before. At the same time, he also explained to Elara to go to Dia, so she didn¡¯t get hit or something.


    Dia didn¡¯t like the initial idea of the snake slithering over to her, but since it was Sam who encouraged it, and the fact that Elara had been coiled up around him since they met at least let Dia tolerate her slithering from Sam¡¯s hands to her own.


    Sam turned to Janik and brought up the important point of rules.


    ¡°How are we doing this? Normally your 46 in Defense would force me to need critical hits.¡± Sam asked as he cleaned the rack for weapons, bringing out a wide collection of anything he could lift.


    ¡°Idunno.¡± Janik replied in a single word with a shrug. ¡°Let¡¯s just have at it and see how it goes.¡±


    Janik stretched out and waved his arms in circles, loosening up a bit before he took an aggressive stance.


    Sam¡¯s expression changed, his calm expression was overtaken by almost wide eyes and intense focus, something in the back of his mind narrowed his sight onto Janik as his mind only considered ways to win, identifying Janik as a threat to his life.

 Ch.049 - Survival instinct

    Sam could see Janik¡¯s expression reacting to something, not considering that the reaction was to Sam¡¯s expression. All the weapons he had picked up were floating around him and his mind was racing with options and thoughts on how to beat his enemy. He knew that his weapons couldn¡¯t do much against him, perhaps hurt or bring him pain but that was it. There was no dirt, water, fire, or secondary he could use to fight. A brief idea of forcing a wooden dagger into his mouth and throat, to restrict his breathing flashed in his mind but he managed to remove that from his mind.


    Suddenly realizing what he was doing, Sam managed to put this side of himself away. He was considering ways to kill Janik. That wasn¡¯t what he was after, no, this was training and testing amongst friends, there was no need to react that dramatically. He just needed to bonk him with the dull wooden training weapons.


    This calmed his mind down considerably. Sam realised that his mind had gone into murder mode, the island might not have left his subconscious yet as every fight there was for his life. He even had to kill in creative ways which... was a horrible sentence if you considered it. This was just sparring, he didn¡¯t need to go that far.


    Then Janik started moving.


    As Janik started moving towards Sam, swords in hand and aiming for an attack, the tunnel vision returned, almost like a switch flipped all the self-persuasion to stop thinking about this as a real-life or death situation faded. He stopped thinking about anything positive, not even properly considering that he was using training weapons, and his survival instinct kicked back in. The only thing that mattered was to take him out before he came within attack range, but what options did he have?


    All his weapons couldn¡¯t make it through his armour, he knew his Defence rating and his weapons wouldn¡¯t make it through that, not in any practical way. He felt his pulse rise dramatically and a fear for his life washed over him.


    He needed better weapons, an angle he hadn¡¯t considered, he needed more power.


    Then it clicked, he had more power!


    Triggering the Telekinetic Boost, a timer popped up in the corner of his view.


    [ Time remaining: 29 / 29 seconds ]


    Dropping all his weapons and moving his Psyhands over to Janik, all his hands were on the man before the training weapons landed on the floor. His opponent reacted as one normally would as a group of hands grabbed them, but he also knew about it so it didn¡¯t seem to change the plans to attack Sam.


    Janik rose off the ground and lost traction in his steps, starting to struggle he used his swords to try and swat the invisible hands of his body. Sam wanted to attack, but all his Psyhands were busy, and Force Launch needed free energy. Despawning enough hands to get the four Energy needed to trigger Force Launch Janik remained in the air, still having plenty of hands to keep him lifted.


    [ Time remaining: 27 / 29 seconds ]


    Sam triggered Force Launch.


    [ Time remaining: 22 / 29 seconds ]


    The pulses of the collective swarm of Psyhands collected into a single wave of energy that, in a split second focused on Janik¡¯s body. As if he were a projectile to be thrown he was launched backwards at great speed, flying several meters before his arc even began to drop, hitting the opposing wall with great force before falling to the ground like a limp doll. His swords were dropped from the initial pulse as he was thrown and the sudden G-forces of this even knocked several of his knicknacks off. The expected sickening cracking and squelching sound of him hitting the wall was luckily replaced with the dull thump of an external force catching him instead, it looked like it hurt, a lot, but it didn¡¯t break him like a solid wall would have.


    Janik started coughing as he forced himself to sit up, this snapped Sam out of it, bringing him back to the reality of what was going on.


    ¡°Oh, fuck. No... Sorry, I didn¡¯t mean to... are... are you ok?¡± Realizing that he just lethally attacked his friend in a sparring match, he slowly realised what was going on in his mind.


    ¡°Jesus fucking Christ, Sam...¡± Janik commented through coughing as he slowly got himself back on his feet. ¡°I know you wanted to win but you don¡¯t need to actually kill me.¡± Emphasizing the word ¡®actually¡¯, he made it clear that this was not what he expected.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry... I don¡¯t know what happened... I just...¡± Before Sam could try to find the words to complete his sentence, Janik broke in.


    ¡°I think I know what happened...¡± As he spoke and walked towards Sam, not having a hint of anger or annoyance on his face, only a supportive smile. ¡°I think the shit happening to you on the island took over... Calm down, you¡¯re safe here, I¡¯m not an enemy so don¡¯t worry.¡±


    Almost like calming Sam down, as if he were an angry dog, Janik slowly walked over to him and placed his hand on Sam¡¯s shoulder. ¡°You¡¯ve been through a lot, so don¡¯t worry. It¡¯ll be fine.¡±


    As strange as this scene was, it did calm Sam down. It gave him the presence of mind to analyse what happened, replaying the scene from his side and looking into what happened. And Janik might be right. First now, in a weird third-person analysis of what he was doing, what he was feeling, he realised that as soon as Janik started his attack, his mind stopped identifying him as a friend. He had only been on the island for about a week, not even fighting every day, but the fights there had done something to his mind.


    Not considering the people who attacked him as actual people, just opponents to be taken care of, he classified Janik as the same, just an opponent to beat, and the fastest way to beat someone is to kill them...


    ¡°I can see it on your face.¡± Janik continued, patting Sam on the shoulder as he spoke. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. I picked this room because I was afraid that your girl was going to cream me into a wall when we fought. So it has damage dampening, it hurt like fuck, don¡¯t get me wrong, but I didn¡¯t take any actual damage from it.¡± He smiled through the whole explanation.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you take a minute to relax, I can fight her in the meantime.¡± Nodding towards Dia as he referred to her.


    Sam nodded, it was not a bad idea for him to take a moment to analyse this. Though it was clear what had happened.


    Sitting down against a nearby wall, he hovered all the training weapons back on the rack. At the same time, Janik went back to pick up his stuff, the various pins and stuff that flew off his vest took a moment to be put back in their place before he picked up the swords and walked back to Dia.


    ¡°Sooo... You want to fight me?¡± Janik tried asking the short Beastfolk.


    Dia turned to Sam with a questioning look. "Sa. Var garn shan?¡±


    Sam had no idea what that meant, she was asking Sam if She... something... He lifted his palm and punched it with his other hand. ¡°Kra.¡±


    He knew the word for Punch, and she seemed clever enough to get how this worked. At worst, she seemed to at least listen to him when he stopped her doing something.


    Elara took this moment to slither down to the ground and move over to Sam, climbing his sitting body and coiling around his neck as normal.


    Dia nodded at the command to punch and took a stance as she turned towards Janik.


    ¡°Zar kru var kra lin. Var garn.¡±


    Janik shook his head, he clearly had no idea what she said, but he seemed to like what was going on and after taking a few steps away from her, he took his stance.


    Not waiting for any words or triggers, Dia took the first action. Swiftly stepping in she closed the distance between them, delivering a flurry of attacks, however, Janik was fast enough to parry them. With each punch and each kick, Janik managed to swing his swords in just the right way and redirect the force away from his body.


    However, this didn¡¯t give him a chance to attack, using all of his focus to parry, and since he had only two arms he had to parry her four limbs. This also meant that she didn¡¯t manage to land any hits, so they were at a stalemate.


    Dia changed things up, suddenly changing everything she lounged out with a bite, it landed on his left arm and hand Janik punched her to get her to let go before he made some distance. Both of them were breathing heavier than before but looked fine, even the bite didn¡¯t seem to do any proper damage. Checking Dia¡¯s info the bite would cause 63 damage, Janik¡¯s Defence rating was 64, so he would just be fine.


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    Janik stepped in, going on the offence this time. The first hit landed but the following ones missed as she went back into her martial arts, parrying with surprising mastery. Suddenly Dia took a step backwards and made a swift spin, Janik smirked as he dodged it with surprising ease before taking a step closer delivering a kick of his own. Janik¡¯s kick landed first, causing the much lighter Dia to be sent off her feet, tumbling onto the floor behind her. In the tumbling motion, she found traction and charged at Janik on all four legs, pouncing on him as she got close. Janik seemed to have planned for this and rather than dodging or stepping away he simply lifted both his swords and pointed towards her. With her straight-ahead momentum, there was little she could do but crash into the two swords.


    As the swords were wooden and dull, this probably hurt but she had taken no actual damage, remembering from earlier inspection they had a damage rating of 0, most likely just for this purpose.


    She got back on her feet and they continued their assault. The longer the fight dragged on the more Janik started landing hits. It was made clear that they were equally matched on paper, but Janik¡¯s experience gave him the needed edge.


    In the end, after gaining a few steps of distance between each other, Janik calmed down and exited his fighting stance. Both of them were breathing heavily after the workout.


    ¡°I think we¡¯re done.¡± He commented towards Sam more than towards Dia.


    Sam understood that, since she didn¡¯t, it was probably a good idea that Sam called her out of combat, just in case.


    ¡°Dia.¡± His voice was firm but not angry or negative.


    Dia hesitantly looked towards him, not wanting to look away from her opponent. But as her eyes met with Sam¡¯s he smiled as he patted the floor next to him, hinting for her to sit down.


    ¡°Come.¡±


    All hints of combat and aggression faded,  she fell to her four legs and ran over to sit down, snuggling up against Sam. Still breathing heavily her breath carried a purr as she rubbed up against him.


    Janik laughed as he took the training swords over to the rack. ¡°If nothing else, it¡¯s clear that she likes you.¡±


    ¡°Well... I could have told you that.¡± Sam commented back snarkily. It was more meant as a joke to carry the conversation than an actual statement.


    ¡°She¡¯s also pretty good at fighting for a Beastfolk. I don¡¯t have any idea where she learned to fight like that... that kind of fighting is not normal for Beastfolk. The moment she bit me was more what I expected, but structured martial arts... first time I¡¯ve seen that.¡± Almost sounding like he was giving a report of his findings to Sam, he continued his explanation. ¡°She lacks experience fighting Players, which makes sense as she¡¯d probably be dead if she fought us regularly, but besides that, she¡¯s incredibly skilled for being... untrained?¡±


    The tone at the end of his statement explained that Janik wasn¡¯t sure if he should consider her trained or not. As he mentioned that her martial arts being uncommon as well it hinted at a paradox of being untrained and lacking experience, while also almost managing to keep up with an experienced Player.


    ¡°So, she should just fight more and she¡¯ll get better?¡± Sam asked the obvious.


    ¡°Well... yes... Based on the explanation you gave me yesterday, she levelled while on the island with you, so she¡¯ll probably passively grow in power as you do, but actual experience can never be underestimated. And that kick of hers, it¡¯s very easy to see through, especially if you know about it. In actual combat, it takes longer than you¡¯d think, and she¡¯s strangely wobbly and slow after it. She needs to learn when to use it... because when it lands, it¡¯s devastating...¡± Rubbing his chin a bit when he mentioned the devastating nature of the kick, it was clear that he was thinking back to it.


    ¡°Come to think of it-¡± Janik¡¯s gaze snapped to Sam as if he just remembered something. ¡°Can you have her kick me with it in here? I want to try and block it.¡±


    Sam shook his head. ¡°There is an hour cooldown on it, and since she just used it...¡±


    ¡°An hour?¡± Janik let out a single chuckle. ¡°That¡¯s harsh, but then again, used correctly it can be... absurd. If you find a way to time it with something that increases critical chance... As I said before, even with my armour a critical hit from that would kill me.¡±


    Janik looked super serious as he explained that.


    Taking that to heart, Sam was considering her Spin Kick a bit more, according to the math it does double normal Kick damage, which was 50, so 100 normally. That alone was amazing, even higher than a critical hit from the Moonblade, but on a critical hit, it would do 200 damage. He would need to find a way to give her a higher critical chance, perhaps an active ability that could trigger that on one attack or something.


    During this whole moment, Dia didn¡¯t pay attention to their talk and just sat against Sam like the dressed-up canine she was. It did, however, make Sam realize that she didn¡¯t have many problems moving around in the dress, it was probably the better clothing for her, save something like a bikini or something that didn¡¯t restrict anything.


    Though he had some time to think about his own behaviour during their fight, it was somewhat pushed back to secondary brainpower. But it had still been enough for him to get a grasp on what went on in his mind. Though his time on the island was short, the life or death situation, as well as the ease he killed people there, had awakened a super logical view on fighting. The goal was to win or survive. When he sparred with Janik, this survival instinct took over and branded him an enemy. Though good from a survival angle, it wasn¡¯t good for... friendly sparring.


    Janik came over to the couple sitting on the floor and crouched down. ¡°I can spar with her to give her some experience, that was fun so that¡¯s fine. But you... you need to work out a few things...¡± He was smiling even though his words had a heavier weight.


    ¡°Yeah... I think I know what¡¯s going on, the shit the System has put me through lately... I just saw you as an enemy to beat or survive, so something in my mind just wanted you gone...¡± Just being honest often seemed like the best idea, especially with friends.


    ¡°Yeah, I thought something like that was the case. And to be honest, it¡¯s not a bad instinct, it just makes sparring and friendly combat a bit... problematic.¡± Janik¡¯s smile had curled into an honest expression. ¡°But, if nothing else, I can say for sure that... that tactic of yours will be devastating.¡±


    Sam had to agree, seeing it in action. Though Defence rating absorbed damage, falling off cliffs, being thrown into walls, pain and problems like that aren¡¯t affected by Defence. This is why he could take out the men on the island with sand, or fire. Being thrown into a wall like that would probably knock the air out of someone. And being lifted, or thrown up, to crash into the ground would work very well.


    Sitting down on the floor in front of Sam, they spent some time talking about this. And it felt surprisingly nice having someone as supportive as Janik in his life. He was almost envious of the kids he was taking care of. But he was still getting fatherly advice like this though he was ¡®just¡¯ his friend.


    Janik might be a bit odd, but he was a good man.


    Their talk let Sam self-analyse a bit more, it wasn¡¯t as much a therapy session as it was someone who understood combat and what certain situations could do to you. Sam thought back to when they fought the first Players, Janik had no problems with the thought of killing them. And the way he spoke about things in how combat or certain situations can change you, felt more close to his heart than just reading about it would do. It was clear to Sam that Janik had seen his share of shit. But he chose not to dive into that.


    Deciding that Dia could spar with Janik when she wanted was a good idea, giving them both some training. And he was fine fighting Sam wheneer but Sam needed to get control over that murder side of himself. It was good to have in actual life-or-death scenarios, but they weren¡¯t going to enter PvP all the time, so it might be a good idea to calm down that side of him.


    ¡°In other news, while you were gone, I discovered something new and interesting that you might like... Or rather, Ethan came to me with a good question I decided to test out.¡± Janik smiled widely.


    ¡°And what is that?¡± Sam asked almost suspicious of his way of wording that.


    Janik¡¯s smile widened.


    ¡°We have found a way to help you get through Defence, even with daggers.¡±

 Ch.050 - Merging

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Sam asked when Janik stated he had a way for him to work through Defence ratings.


    ¡°Just what I said, we spoke about it a while ago that since you fling around small weapons, and you don¡¯t have damage scaling, you need a way to get through Defence. I mean... how much damage could you do on me, with my armour?¡± Pointing at Sam with a ¡®got you there¡¯ expression, Janik continued. ¡°All your little 5-damage weapons are basically useless, even a 20-damage weapon won¡¯t do much to me even while critting.¡±


    Sam had to agree, this was a problem he had on the island, due to the presence of armour on at least the leaders. It was a bit odd that most other people only had shit-tier armour but the leaders would keep theirs. Perhaps the System selected individuals based on something?


    In either case, as soon as a Defence rating surpasses 10, his smaller weapons are useless, and as it surpasses 20... and so on. It became basic math again, simple in concept but frustrating as Sam didn¡¯t have any direct damage scaling of some statistic, he needed to compensate for it with volume, which was a problem when the Defence rating affected each source of damage individually.


    But, having a way to get damage through Defences, would dramatically increase the practicality of his way of fighting.


    ¡°And how much will that cost me?¡± Assuming it¡¯d be a skill crystal or something, it could be worth it in the long run.


    ¡°Zero moneys, just time.¡± Janik smiled back.


    ¡°What? That... feels too good to be true...¡± Sam looked at Janik with a suspicious look, this didn¡¯t sound logical at all.


    ¡°It¡¯s actually simple... In theory. Since Defence ratings affect each incoming damage source, you just need to time it so your weapons hit at the same time, roughly at the same location.¡± Using his fingers to emphasise his point he placed his two index fingers parallel and mimicked a thrust with them. ¡°It sounded dumb, I agree. But I looked it up and I found some mentions of other people thinking the same, but few actually bothering as not everyone uses multiple weapons.¡±


    ¡°Well, you do, and I absolutely do... So all I need to do is to time my attacks so they hit at the same time?¡± Sam asked, sounding confused that it could be that simple.


    ¡°And in the same location, at least somewhat. When I tried to get the hang of this it was easier with thrusts or cutting the same way, it was harder to time the hits attacking from different sides.¡± When explaining his problematic attack he mimicked a twin-cut almost like a hug.


    ¡°So...¡± Sam telekinetically reached out and picked up four training daggers, hovering them back. ¡°If I just time the attack properly.¡± Moving them slowly he thrust them towards the floor, all four of the daggers hitting the floor with a dull thunk.


    ¡°No, you see.¡± Janik commented. ¡°The four weren¡¯t as one. You could barely hear multiple sounds there, it needs to be really fucking close to work. And since you use different-sized weapons, it might be hard to get the hang of it.¡±


    Sam thought about it as he tried a few more stabs at the floor. Every time there was the slightest difference in the sounds, it wasn¡¯t until he held them together in one cluster and moved them, that it was a single sound.


    ¡°There, like that!¡± Janik exclaimed as he pointed at the daggers. ¡°That sounded right.¡±


    Sam let out a dissatisfied sound between his tongue and teeth, this was annoying. ¡°If it needs to be that perfect, doesn¡¯t that make it very hard to use it in combat?¡±


    ¡°Yes and no. I had to get it right on my own many times before the System gave me a passive Utility skill, now I can usually do it most of the time as long as I pace it correctly.¡± Janik had a better-than-thou tone like he was explaining something as elementary as breathing.


    ¡°Oh... You got a Utility skill?¡± Sam sounded surprised, if he had just led with that, things would have been different.


    Sam knew that Utility skills were kind of odd in the Player world, you could rarely buy or obtain them through the normal way of levelling or finding them. You had to earn them.


    Like the Force Pulse he had learned before, it was him testing and working on a different way to use his already existing powers, and doing it correctly enough for the System to acknowledge it. But once you got it, you just had to activate it, or in the case of a passive skill; meet the triggering effects.


    So if Sam could manage the timing properly, he could also get this skill as it applied to him. He could also see people not considering or bothering with this, as there existed other skills that gave armour penetration, or just getting better and harder hitting weapons or spells. So the ways around them were more common. Especially since this idea only benefitted multi-weapon users.


    ¡°Yep, I can¡¯t remember how many times I needed to get it working... Since I didn¡¯t have anyone to help me with this, I had to train on goblins and dummies to get it right, but now I can do it almost every time as the System helps me with timing.¡± Janik smiled as he made a cross-slash with his hands in the air.


    ¡°From what I can tell and from the description, it combines the total damage before the Defense affects it. So if you have ten 5-damage daggers, the damage wouldn¡¯t be 10 instances of 5, but one instance of 50. So in my case 4 damage would make it through. Not massive... sure... but with your other weapons that could become a thing.¡±


    This was incredibly valuable information, it would bring a swarm of daggers back to practical use when Defence values become a thing on monsters.


    ¡°Just a warning.¡± Janik added. ¡°It took me weeks to get it working the first time. I¡¯ll admit some of it might be due to not being sure if it¡¯d work at all, but... I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s easier or harder for you with your... voodoo hands, but you might need a while.¡±


    Sam took the ¡®warning¡¯ to heart. As Janik hinted, at least now he knew it was a real working thing, he just needed to get the timing right, often enough to have it considered a success.


    ¡°I would offer myself.¡± Janik looked slightly uncomfortable. ¡°But I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a good idea to use my current armour as a critical hit could kill me if everything hits at once, and I don¡¯t feel like getting stabbed hundreds of times with a weaker armour on so... you¡¯re on your own for that one.¡± His uncomfortable expression changed to a smile in the end.


    And Sam couldn¡¯t blame him, after all using a Defence 10 armour would mean that he could try with two 5-damage daggers, at worst this could do 20 damage which is even something Sam would have survived with his old health. But... Even if he learns it at a modest 10 attempts, this would be 20 stabbings. Though the Player armour kept the damage from getting through, you felt the attacks most of the time...


    ¡°Understandable.¡± Sam nodded. ¡°I can¡¯t blame you there, but just knowing it¡¯s real removes the doubt, I can take my time learning it properly.


    Manifesting a Psyhand, he gave Dia some head patting as she sat next to him, rubbing her head and muzzle against him like a happy cat, letting out some purring as she did. As his Psyhand contacted with her head it startled her for a brief moment, but realizing what it was, as he started petting her, her smile just grew as she leant into the invisible force.


    Janik seemed to have realised what was going on as his normal smile softened a bit, still smiling but his eyes softened slightly like remembering something.


    ¡°Well!¡± Janik seemed to like to use this kind of sudden exclaiming to change subjects or to get the focus.


    ¡°I think you should consider gearing up, getting some better scabbards, and get ready. If you¡¯re good for it, Daddy needs some money.¡± He got up from the floor and stretched a bit before picking up his swords. ¡°Considering going back Aetheria, taking some runs through some Dungeons, perhaps peeking into the second Floor if we do well.¡±


    Sam pondered a moment, he was feeling surprisingly ready for it, he had a good night''s rest and an amazing breakfast. Seeing Dia do well in their duel also made him feel better when it came to fighting alongside them. He had seen her fight before but it was different seeing her against Janik like that.


    Gearing up also sounded good, he had spare hands now, no reason not to fill them with something, if nothing else; more low-level daggers. They were cheap, after all. And any armour he could find for Dia was better than nothing, if memory served the cheaper stuff was also cheap.


    ¡°I think I¡¯ll go get some more weapons, and perhaps some armour for Dia.¡±


    ¡°Oh, yeah, for sure. That¡¯s a good idea.¡± Janik nodded as he sheathed his swords.


    Using a minute to pick up all his weapons and get them sheathed, Dia¡¯s purring stopped as he left her sitting there, but she followed him every step of the way. Elara remained around his neck like a scarf, coming along for the ride.


    Sam noticed the information in the corner of his view about Elara having levelled up, something he had completely forgotten after he returned to Earth. After a quick check of her info, he put it all into Vitality, like before, this raised her health yet again and increased the potency of her Venom, and since she got Venom 2, this made things even better. Some test math put the extra math at about 20% harder to resist, and the damage was 500% as it went from 1 to 5. Hopefully, that would be more practical as time went on.


    They all left for the main hall, Sam walked over to the trade kiosk and started looking around. Dia came with him, holding onto his arm as her life depended on it. He had dedicated a Psyhand to remain on her head, giving her reassuring petting, which seemed to help a bit, but she still seemed drastically overwhelmed.


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Checking his account, he had just over $53 000 left, which was plenty to live well on, but purchasing good Player gear...


    He would have to start with something, it was better than nothing. And though he could bank on them getting something from Random Boxes, it didn¡¯t feel right to possibly have her go in there unarmed until then.


    Taking some inventory, his current weaponry was the Moonblade, 3 named daggers, a short sword, five cheap daggers and a horrible cleaver. In total 11 weapons. Opting to get rid of the cleaver as it was impractical, for example, he couldn¡¯t stab with it, his math put him at 10 weapons. Keeping the weight low enough that he just needed one hand per blade, and with his current hand count, he could wield 15 more daggers.


    Checking the price for weapons, the 5-damage daggers were cheap, $125 per dagger. Probably due to the massive supply from the starter dungeon. But just bumping that to the 10-damage daggers increased the purchase price to $50 000....


    Sam had to keep himself from reacting loudly seeing this massive jump for the first time.


    Compared to other weapons, like the 10-damage swords, they cost the same so there was some damage-scaling math they had made...


    It seems he would just have to buy a bunch of cheap daggers, and rather grind his way to upgrades.


    Armour was a similar case, the armour class he sold earlier for $1 000, cost 5 000 to buy. He knew they had a 5x markup, the introductory pamphlet even said so, it was still insane seeing it first-hand. He could get a decent armour but that would break the bank, and even if he wanted to, he couldn¡¯t get anything close to the one he was wearing...  For Dia, he would have to settle for a High-mid end, E-rank armour for her, giving her a Defense of 10. It was much better than nothing, but it would set him back 5000.


    In the end, his purchase ended up with 1x armour for Dia, costing 5000, and 15 daggers costing  125 each.


    They had enough random scabbards lying around that for a total of $100, he could get one for each weapon he was already carrying.


    A bit under $7000 was used in that go. Though it was surprisingly little compared to how much he earned in the runs of the Beastfolk Dungeon, it still felt a bit wrong doing this.


    Getting all of this collected took a short while, and getting everything strapped on properly took longer. Having Dia wear the armour was not a problem, but she didn¡¯t seem to like having to wear clothing and armour on top of that. But after fastening it properly, making sure it wasn¡¯t in the way of her arms, it seemed to be fine. This was something Sam was particular about when he picked out one, it should have a small footprint on her torso and arms so he ended up with what looked like a leather vest with extra tightening mechanisms here and there, to get it as good as possible around her joints.


    Though, it looked a bit weird with some leather armour on top of a dress, at the same time; Sam had to admit that the dress suited her well, the armour just made it more functional in a weird way.


    Sam felt a bit more bogged down, wearing just under 8kg/17.6lbs of weapons, not counting the scabbards, was somewhat annoying. Though he found out that he could cheat and have his Psyhands active all the time, each hand grabbing around a weapon, it didn¡¯t matter if it was drawn or not he could ¡®hold¡¯ them and lift them slightly to lighten the load. It wasn¡¯t perfect but it helped.


    Janik had sat down on a bench, doing things on his phone as he waited. Knowing some more about his life, Sam could understand why he was on his phone so much, having guardianship of 17 kids probably meant a lot of chatting, and since one of them was a Player, he was probably super paranoid.


    As the duo walked over to Janik, he looked up to see it was them before he looked back down to the phone. ¡°Hold on, just go-¡± Stopping himself he lifted his gaze again to Sam. ¡°Dude... I knew you were getting more weapons but that looks kind of ridiculous...¡±


    ¡°If it¡¯s any consolidation, having 25 blades hanging off me, probably feels dumber than it looks...¡± Sam knew this was a necessity and wouldn¡¯t stop doing it, but he was considering getting a backpack that he could just stuff it all in... But the way the weight was placed over his body, letting him control it that way, felt more practical.


    Letting out a chuckle, Janik completed whatever he was doing on his phone before pocketing it and getting up.


    ¡°There we go, let¡¯s go to Aetheria!¡±


    Now that it was happening, Sam felt a mix of emotions. On one hand, he wanted to return for many reasons. But on the other, this felt oddly daunting. Following Janik out of the building and towards the tower, Sam considered that it wouldn¡¯t be too problematic; after all, his problems have been Player-related, not the monster.


    As they exited the building to high-rises, distant skyscrapers and everything being made of concrete, Dia looked like she was about to short circuit. Her eyes were wide, her tails were gone under her dress, and her ears were flat. Sam expected the size of everything was probably a huge part of this. She was terrified at this alien planet she found herself on, barely a tree in the distance it must have been horrifying for her.


    Her eyes landed on Sam¡¯s, and getting a reassuring head pat, like before seemed to help a lot. But she didn¡¯t seem comfortable in the slightest as they walked through the plaza. As soon as she properly noticed the Tower, looking up into the absurd height it reached, Sam could feel her scrunch up trying to make herself smaller.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think your girl likes the city much.¡± Janik commented with a worried expression.


    ¡°Well, it is probably the first time she has seen something like this, so I have no idea what she¡¯s thinking. Not like I can explain it to her either...¡± Sam mentally made a note that he needed to find a language course or something for her.


    They walked closer to the Tower until they came into the area of its influence, once they did the familiar window popped up asking if they wanted to join. Sam accepted it as a group and the white warm light again wrapped around them.


    Landing in the familiar place in Aetheria, Dia¡¯s expression changed dramatically. Gone was the terror and fear of the uncertain, and in its place was a wide smile and relief. She started running around on all fours like a kid in the grass.


    ¡°You know... I have been thinking...¡± Janik stated as he looked at Dia running around.


    Sam walked up to him and looked at Dia as well, both of them having the same stare and deadpan expression.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t know she would be on all fours that often when I brought the dress...¡±


    Running around happily, Dia had her tails lifted often.


    Sam manifested a Psyhand and weakly fake-slapped Janik. ¡°Stop staring at my girl¡¯s ass.¡±


    Janik didn¡¯t stop, even when ¡®slapped¡¯. ¡°I think you need to get her some underwear if she¡¯s going to keep doing that. Or some pants...¡±


    ¡°Stop staring at her ass.¡± Sam commented to Janik who still didn¡¯t look away.


    ¡°It¡¯s oddly hypnotic...¡± Janik replied instead, still staring.


    Sam made a point of not being gentle as he placed a Psyhand over each of Janik¡¯s eyes. ¡°The pulse of my Psyhands is probably a few kilos, it won¡¯t damage you but based on what I¡¯ve seen; it¡¯ll hurt.¡±


    Janik turned around, looking at Sam with a wide smile. ¡°Point taken. Let¡¯s go!¡± He started marching towards the local village not far from the landing area.


    Sam despawned his Psyhands, he didn¡¯t intend to pulse them, but he did get a strange jealous sense, he hadn¡¯t considered it properly before now, but he really saw Dia as ¡®his¡¯.


    Letting Dia run around as she wanted, she was clothed which was enough for her to not be killed on sight, so he didn¡¯t consider that a problem. Following Janik, it didn¡¯t take long for Dia to run up to them and walk alongside them in the grass. She was much more comfortable here, walking upright with a content expression, tail lifted and swishing happily, ears perked and her walk was much more free and relaxed. Modern Earth was alien to her, though Sam expected her to get used to it over time.


    ¡°We¡¯ll get on the next truck out of here, I think we can go to the Raven dungeon.¡± Janik explained as he started heading towards what looked like an off-road minibus. ¡°They are a pain to deal with most of the time since they like flying around, but that shouldn¡¯t be a problem for you, right?¡± He smiled as he put most of the responsibility on Sam.


    ¡°As long as they are within my range, I think it could work?¡± Sam honestly replied, not playing along with Janik¡¯s joke.


    ¡°From what I read, the dungeon is a pain due to them flying around, only rangers or mages tend to handle it, but it¡¯s not only lucrative, but it¡¯s the end-dungeon for the first Floor, so I think it¡¯s a good test.¡± Janik looked at the blue sky for a few seconds. ¡°It¡¯s not just flying enemies in that place, some Ravens don¡¯t fly, and they have ground forces.¡±


    This sounded interesting, he had seen pictures of the Ravenfolk, they looked like large birds with some slight human features, and they were known to just fly above you and drop shit on you. But for it to be more lucrative, it sounded like it could be a good day. Not only considering what they had discussed so far, but Elara¡¯s venom was increased and Dia didn¡¯t need much XP to level up either!


    He was looking forward to this!

 Ch.051 - Back to Dungeons

    Janik jogged over and talked to the man who had opened up a sun chair next to the bus, by the time Sam and Dia caught up with him, he was done talking with him, just a few sentences were exchanged.


    ¡°It seems he leaves whenever we want, we can pay him $500 to drive right away, or wait until the bus fills up... But... Since we¡¯re alone, I doubt it¡¯s going to fill up.


    Sam felt weird for just now thinking that $500 was not that much, something that would have kept him living for quite a time before.


    ¡°I say we just pay... saves us the time waiting.¡±


    ¡°I agree-¡± Janik nodded. ¡°Besides, 500 isn¡¯t that much, the first Core we get will return that and more.¡± Ending on a smile he turned back around and flagged the driver.


    ¡°Hey, Mister. We¡¯d like to pay the 500 for the drive.¡±


    The rotund man groaned as he forced himself up from the sun chair, which probably barely held his weight. He used a moment to collapse it before he put it into a compartment on the minibus.


    ¡°Aait! Climb on board, pay me and we¡¯ll get you there soon.¡±


    The man was surprisingly straightforward, Sam wondered if it was a normal thing to not consider the overly polite nature that the workers on Earth are expected to have, here in Aetheria. But it didn¡¯t matter.


    Boarding the bus, Janik handled the payment this round. Knowing him he¡¯d probably want Sam¡¯s half at some point later, so since he had already sat down Sam decided to just send it to him right away. It might not transfer while they are in Aetheria but it should do so once they return to Earth.


    Once the payment was done, the man drove off. There was a strong feeling to buckle up as he didn¡¯t care about speed limits or about driving calmly. There was a sign stapled to the wall explaining that as a Player, you shouldn¡¯t be afraid of some rough driving. This was not his first time.


    Sam was surprised that Dia didn¡¯t seem to care about the driving, he halfway expected her to be panicked, being inside a metal box on wheels that shook and drove towards wherever they were going. But she was fine, not caring in the slightest. She was calm enough that she started grooming Sam instead, to his surprise.


    ¡°Wh.. what are you doing?¡± He felt a bit weird as she started licking his neck and hair, gently pushing her away as one would do a pet.


    She looked almost insulted as he motioned for her to stop, responding with a stern expression. ¡°''Yap'', Var tan tarn zar!¡±.


    He understood the No-sound, and that she needed to do something. Lacking an understanding of the word ¡®tarn¡¯, in context it felt that this meant clean, groom, or... something of the sort. Since he knew the other words it made contextual sense. So he understood the sentence that she needed to groom her mate, it seemed incredibly important to her as she didn¡¯t tend to normally be this assertive about things.


    Accepting that this was important to her, he realised that he might as well just get used to it sooner rather than later. If this was an important cultural thing for her, he might just need to deal with it.


    She seemed happy about it and let out a satisfied purring sound as she continued grooming him.


    Janik had seen their interaction and was looking at them with a massive grin, seeming to take massive enjoyment in just being there on the sideline like this.


    ¡°God damn you two are cute.¡± He continued smiling, sounding like he was speaking to a child with his first ¡®totally real girlfriend¡¯.


    ¡°Fuck off.¡± Sam retorted, it was already embarrassing enough being groomed like this, and Janik¡¯s antics didn¡¯t help.


    The rest of the trip was surprisingly uneventful. The first floor of Aetheria wasn¡¯t massive, at least not with a motorized transport. Though the trip took an hour of reckless driving across the open plains, lacking speed limits probably helped them make it there in ¡®only¡¯ one hour.


    ¡°We¡¯re here!¡± The man shouted to his three, four if you count Elara, passengers as he braked far too hard for what was needed to stop, causing everyone to almost slide off their seats.


    The landscape hadn¡¯t changed, everything on the first Floor looked somewhat similar, they had driven past forests, some small mountains and mostly plains. They had stopped near the mountains on the opposite side of the entry portal. The landscape had changed slightly, with less forest and trees and slightly more rocky terrain.


    ¡°You fuckers want to be picked up as well, pickup orders cost $1000. Pay in advance.¡± The driver shouted as he opened the doors for the group.


    Sam considered it, they had been driving about for an hour... and he was not light on the gas pedal. Odds were that they would need to camp out overnight and walk for two days to make it back on foot. Not considering any stops more than breaks.


    Looking at Janik, it seemed that he had similar thoughts. It was a substantial sum, but... a single monster Core would pay for that and more, so though it was a high cost it was... not that bad compared to the expected earnings for a dungeon...


    Janik turned to Sam. ¡°What do you say? If we know how long we¡¯ll be here, it¡¯s not a bad idea. But if we run this a bunch of times over a few days... we might not know when we¡¯re done?¡±


    ¡°If it¡¯s only one camping on the way back, perhaps two if we take it calmly, I don¡¯t see a problem with it. Sleeping in a forest or something isn¡¯t all bad.¡± Sam smiled back. Not being alone makes it surprisingly better than the PvP island he was on last week.


    Janik nodded at Sam as he turned back to the driver. ¡°No thanks, we¡¯re good!¡±


    The driver gave them a thumbs up as a response, and as soon as they had gotten off the bus, and made sure their modest baggage was with them, he drove off at a reckless speed.


    Seeing the way he drove while not being on board, Sam wondered how he was still alive, he also had to commend the suspension of that bus...


    ¡°So, should we just get to it?¡± Janik commented as he vaguely gestured towards the mountains as he looked at something on his phone. ¡°The entrance is over there, a few minutes walking according to the guide.¡±


    Sam couldn¡¯t think of any good reason to wait, they were in a good position now, the heaviest part of digestion was done, they had just rested on the bus and the time since they played about had passed enough to let Dia¡¯s kick recharge, as well as a single second of the Telekinetic Boost timer. It was just over two hours since he used it, so it was currently on 23/29. Though he would like to get it fully recharged, going into an unknown Dungeon, he couldn¡¯t hold them back for 12 more hours.


    ¡°I say we just go now, I¡¯m feeling good.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s great, let¡¯s go!¡± Janik did a pat-check on his pockets and body, seeming to just want to make sure everything was in place before he started walking up a path in the mountains.


    Following him, Dia opted for a quadruped mode, seemingly getting better balance doing that. She walked next to Sam as Elara remained coiled around his neck. As they were walking, Janik slowed down enough for Sam to catch up, ending up next to him.


    ¡°Here.¡± Janik handed Sam a small box. ¡°Elara told me she got a better Venom skill when she levelled up, I¡¯m sure you want to test it out.¡± He smiled.


    Checking what he handed him, Sam saw he had been given a box of toothpicks. It was the rounded wooden kind, a bit stronger than the flat ones. They were plenty sharp for the Venom shenanigans they tried before, so it wasn¡¯t a bad idea. And them being dried and ready for use like this made them much sturdier than the stuff they made in the Dungeon for the last test.


    ¡°I also got an empty one for the prepared ones.¡± Janik handed Sam another small box, which was the same kind but just empty.


    ¡°Oh, thank you. I think that¡¯s a good idea.¡± Sam smiled. Janik was good at pre-planning for stuff like this. An odd timing to give it to him but he couldn¡¯t say that it was negative at all.


    Not wanting to have Elara rush in and bite stronger enemies just like that, this was the best way for her to contribute, at least in Sam¡¯s mind.


    As they continued towards the entry portal, Sam had Elara use all her 16 [ Venom 2 ] charges on the toothpicks, creating a similar item as they played around with earlier. Just that this was much more potent. Sam also reacted to the colour difference, Venom 1 had an electric blue colour, and Venom 2 was also an electric colour but purple. Holding up the toothpicks, explaining the deal to Elara, she happily smeared her Venom across them before Sam put them in the empty box, giving him a small box of 16x Envenomed Toothpicks.


    Dia looked at this process with curious eyes, she seemed to want some distance from the toothpicks, showing this with a grimace as Sam moved them into the container, he was glad that she understood they were dangerous, just in case something were to happen.


    Suddenly an information window popped up, asking if they wanted to enter the Dungeon. It seemed they had found the entry portal as they were entering the area in front of a cave¡¯s opening.


    ¡°Ah, seems we¡¯re here.¡± Janik stated as he stopped. Not mentioning anything more he just disappeared in a white light, seemingly having accepted the question.


    Sam did the same, making sure that Dia and Elara were hinted to in the info, and choosing to enter as a group. The white light came and went as normal and they found themselves in the clearing in front of the cave they saw outside. The path leading up to here where the portal was had disappeared, in its stead was just rocks and more boulders.


    ¡°Well, the guide said that we go through the cave, but from there, it changes every time so we¡¯re on our own.¡± Janik put his phone in his pocket and pulled both his swords. ¡°I¡¯ll take point and do my best to stop anything coming for us, but I¡¯ll rely on you for anything ranged. Your girl will be our backup combatant... I don¡¯t know how to... Tell her that but... I expect she¡¯ll fight when it comes to it?¡±


    Sam nodded at the party leader explaining their plan and composition, pulling his swarm of blades as a result.


    Dia looked at Janik pull his swords, and all of Sam¡¯s weapons left their sheathes, flying around them like the angriest of swarming insects. ¡°Garn?¡±


    Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    She had used this word before, but Sam hadn¡¯t gotten a context for it. Luckily she seemed to realize his confusion from his expression.


    Mimicking a punch and kick she continued. ¡°Kra, vash... Garn!¡±


    Kra meant punch, and Vash meant kick, he knew that. Since she put it together like this... did Garn mean fighting or combat? If so it was correct.


    Nodding in response after understanding this, he hoped, he repeated the word. ¡°Garn.¡±


    Getting up properly onto her hind legs, she went bipedal, something Sam had seen she did when she intended to fight more structured. Whenever she had fought on all fours it was more feral, biting and clawing, but when she wanted to use her martial arts she did it bipedally.


    The group looked as ready as they could be, Elara chilling as a scarf more than anything, and with this Janik started moving forward.


    The air chilled considerably as they walked through the cave, or rather than a cave it was like a tunnel through the mountain. They entered through the opening they thought was a cave, and after a few turns exited the other side to the top of a large valley. The exit of the tunnel led into its bowl-like shape, a thick fog, or perhaps a cloud layer, covered most of it only letting them see that there were trees, vegetation and tall-standing boulders dotted around the valley. The little they saw through the clouds hinted at them being quite high up. A few flying creatures in the distance, but too far off to do anything about it even with modern weapons. The wind was surprisingly calm but much colder than it was in Aetheria, they didn¡¯t properly notice the change until they went into the tunnel from the other side.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Ravenlord. 0/1


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters: 0/80


    Rewards:


    10 000 xp


    1x Random mid-level crafting material


    Chance (10%): D-tier item.


    Bonus rewards for optional step:


    10 000 xp


    Random Box - X. ]


    The familiar window popped up, causing Sam to chuckle. This raised an eyebrow from Janik who seemed to view the danger of this place.


    ¡°The XP rewards feels... surprisingly low...¡± Sam explained the reason behind his chuckle to the curious Janik.


    ¡°That¡¯s a dangerous thought. I have heard that this is how many PvPers begin their life...¡± Janik looked a little worried as he said that.


    Sam... had to admit that he didn¡¯t have many reservations about killing humans before, given that there was a need for it. But after the island that had just been solidified. He hoped it didn¡¯t become worse but he could feel deep inside that humans and monsters, the line was blurring.


    He decided to not share that with Janik.


    Janik narrowed his eyes a bit at Sam¡¯s reaction before his eyes snapped to Dia before he turned around.


    ¡°Sa, Sa!¡± Dia pulled at Sam and pointed into the air ahead of them. ¡°Skar tirr!¡±


    Neither of those words made sense to him, but he quickly found out what it was. Janik had seen her reaction before she spoke and readied himself. Incoming towards them came what could best be described as a gigantic raven. Though there was a slightly more humanoid body to it, it was very vague, the head, wings and most of it looked just like a slightly off raven. It was only a single one.


    As he neared the group he seemed to drop something that glinted in the air, dropping a few daggers Sam caught it with his Psyhands once it came within his range, which had doubled since he last fought something properly.


    Catching it with surprise ease, it wasn¡¯t extremely hard to see even though it was moving rather swiftly. The lack of danger in catching something, no matter how dangerous or sharp it might be, helped a lot when all he needed to was grasp it.


    As it hung still in the air he could turn it around and inspect it, adding his sense of touch he could see that it was a heavily weighted dart.


    The Raven didn¡¯t seem to like this and flicked his other foot towards them, sending another something towards them.


    Again it was hardly a problem to catch it, it was somewhat strange how easy it felt.


    ¡°Are... they supposed to be this easy to fight? He¡¯s out of ammo...¡± Sam commented in an almost dissatisfied tone.


    ¡°No... I don¡¯t think so, the guide said that they throw darts and whatnot, but they tend to fly down and attack you with bladed talons. They are surprisingly nimble in the air.¡± Janik replied as he kept his eyes on the enemy, not looking away at all.


    ¡°Well... He¡¯s not coming.¡± Sam commented as he turned the darts around and triggered his Force Launch, sending them back to sender.


    The raven hovered in the air, outside of Sam¡¯s range as it looked curiously at how his darts had stopped in mid-air. Jumping a little as there was a strange pulse around them he didn¡¯t get the time needed to react before they impacted his body. Though they sunk deep into his feathers and flesh behind, it didn¡¯t stop him from flying. Letting out a shriek shortly after they contacted it looked much angrier.


    ¡°Well... I think you pissed it off.¡± Janik smiled, though Sam couldn¡¯t see the smile he could hear it in his voice.


    Flying down into a dive towards the trio, it was the first unlucky creature to unknowingly enter Sam¡¯s Area. Having moved his Psyhands back to his body and picked up the dropped weapons, everything was sent forward towards the incoming birdman.


    Five of the blades landed a critical hit, one of them being the Bleeding edge. Not counting any Defence ratings, this calculated to 207 damage.


    The ravenfolk came flying in towards the group, but seconds after getting within 20m/60ft it met a swarm of blades which was barely short of shredding it in the air, cutting it deep. A splatter of blood stopped its controlled descent and instead had it limply drop straight down into the stone of the mountain.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Ravenlord. 0/1


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters: 1/80 ]


    [ Experience gained: +100. ]


    Sam again chuckled but did so without smiling or showing any amusement. The XP sharing was set to 50% between him and Janik, and another 50% between Sam and Dia, But imagining if he got the full 400 XP alone he would need close to 13 000 kills to level up...


    ¡°I know I was only gone a week... in my mind... But... if all of the 80 monsters, and the boss, give 400 experience... And with the 20 000 for completing the Dungeon with the optional reward... If I get everything alone that¡¯s still going to be like 100 runs or something...¡±


    He sounded surprisingly defeated, this was the highest ranked Dungeon on the first Floor, and...


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry-¡± Janik smiled back at Sam. ¡°This is just the first Floor. From what I read the XP will increase dramatically on the next one.¡±


    Considering this from a game perspective, it made sense to a certain degree. If this was the end-level dungeon, the odds of having already hit Level 20 would be relatively low by the time you fight here. Likewise, this made grinding harder on the level you¡¯re at. But as soon as you get to the next Floor, there is a new level grind which will probably feel similar, if that were true it might be much easier to earn experience on those levels.


    ¡°Come to think of it... Why don¡¯t we just go to a higher floor with a higher-level player, set the XP share for 100% for us and have that person make a few kills or roll through a dungeon, wouldn¡¯t that just speed level us?¡± Thinking back to the MMO games, boosting wasn¡¯t uncommon at all.


    Sam hadn¡¯t considered that before, he was so engrossed in focusing on himself and learning, but... that would make things dramatically easier. Just pay or get a good-natured higher-level Player to boost you through a few dungeons and bam, suddenly you start at level 40 the second day... or something, depending on the math.


    ¡°You really need to read the guide material, Sam.¡± Janik looked at Sam with a disappointed look. ¡°I think I¡¯ll give you that as homework for tomorrow, read more, especially now that your phone has access to the TAC libraries.¡±


    Inhaling deeply and letting it out in a sigh, Janik¡¯s smile returned. ¡°But, to answer; we don¡¯t know. The System seems to... know... or something if you plan to abuse this and block you from entering or gaining XP and gear. Which is kind of weird, if you think about it. I was level 16 when we started going about together, many levels between us, but if I were to boost you, you wouldn¡¯t get any XP. When or what triggers this block isn¡¯t known, but it seems to be something the System just... does.¡±


    Sam was not satisfied with that answer, he understood that it was the answer he was getting but... It was unsatisfactory.


    It did explain why the boosting wasn¡¯t common, at least. And if boosting was blocked it also explained why Sam could still get experience and items when running Dungeons with Janik even though he was much higher level than him at the time. Likewise, if he¡¯s still level 16, then Sam would be a few levels higher than him.


    ¡°Where is the limit, then? Can you party up with a Level 100 Player and still get XP?¡±


    ¡°In the right circumstances, I think so, yes. But if you do it for the reason of abusing the level difference, I think the System would somehow know and penalize things.¡± Janik shrugged back. Though he knew what the guides and general knowledge were, he didn¡¯t ¡®know¡¯ why this was happening.


    Sam sighed as well, he got his answer, it explained things but not in the detail he hoped. However, this also raised questions that, no doubt, others had asked; Why is this the case and how does the System know?


    ¡°Well, for now, it seems we got company.¡± Janik brought their focus back on the matter at hand as two more ravenfolk came flying in.

 Ch.052 - Oddly boring

    Looking in the direction Janik was facing, Sam took a more thorough look at them. They looked exactly like the previous one that attacked them, seemingly carrying something in their feet. Their feet looked more shiny and metallic than they should, hinting at their having the same claw blades as the first one.


    ¡°Rinse and repeat!¡± Janik commanded.


    Sam, having already caught the darts before, knew the weight of the darts and what they were, meaning that he could plan accordingly more easily. He could use fewer Psyhands as he¡¯d know how much he needed to catch them, and he could just return them to sender much faster unless he intended to keep them. After all, there was no need to send the darts back if it wouldn¡¯t do anything meaningful. He could have kept them and used them to deliver Elars¡¯s Venom in the future, as that would be more practical than using the toothpicks, a bit late for today but it could be something to consider in the future. The problem was that the darts were surprisingly heavy, not a problem to use here and now but it wasn¡¯t viable for Sam to lug these around.


    To save on Energy and effort, although all Psyhand-related effort was just thinking and reacting, Sam opted for a simpler solution.


    Given his current weight limit per Psyhand, he could have one hand hold two daggers, though this was highly impractical for proper combat, it could let him temporarily free up some hands for other things but still have the weapons in the attack zone, not having to drop them and pick them up. Just a quality-of-life thing that sped up his attack time.


    The reason for him doing this was to let him faster swap from grabbing or swatting incoming attacks away and be ready for his attack.


    As they expected to happen, the ravens dropped two darts each, their distance gave Sam more than enough time to ready himself. Handing over four of his daggers to other hands, his now free four hands could grab the incoming darts. Though their weight and momentum meant they didn¡¯t stop immediately in the air, he had plenty of time to slow them down, while redirecting them outwards, to make sure that they stopped and didn¡¯t hit them. It was a super simple thing to do, something one would normally do with their arms if something was thrown at them. Then, if he wanted to throw them back, he could have just handed over some more weapons to other hands and Launched them, but instead, he just dropped them, letting the darts fall to the ground as he rearmed himself.


    The Ravens now having only their claws and beaks, had no choice but to get in range.


    ¡°Janik, can you see how much health they have?¡± Sam asked if he intended to split up his arsenal between them before they decided to charge.


    ¡°70, each. I guess their stats are more in damage as this should be a relatively high-level dungeon.¡± Janik didn¡¯t look away from them as he responded.


    Sam needed to get himself the appraisal skill at some point, that was almost too practical even at the lowest level.


    This also gave him what he needed, based on the dead raven, they were surprisingly easy to hit for him while diving in, partly due to the lack of dodging. He expected they would do that when they got close but there was no ¡®need¡¯ to dodge during the dive, making them a very linear moving target.


    Sam knew the simple math behind his weapons, so he split them up simply, the named weapons and short sword went against one target, and his swarm of 20 cheaper daggers went on the other. This should split his total damage up, if everything hit it would be 102 damage on one target and 100 on the other. Expecting some misses and perhaps critical hits should be good enough for the two.


    The ravens dived towards them, tucking their wings in closer to provide enough lift but less drag for speed, Sam had already split up the weapons and moved them in the rough path of their dive, striking at them as soon as they entered his Area.


    Everything was working according to his plan, Shadowfang landed a crit, not that it was needed, from the daggers three of them missed, but three others critted, balancing that out. The end damage, not counting any Defences they shouldn¡¯t have, was 122 damage on the first target and 100 on the second, they both went limp in mid-air with a dramatic pulse of blood, crashing into the ground shortly after.


    ¡°Yeah.... this tactic is kind of stupidly effective,¡± Janik commented as he took a more relaxed stance. ¡°Normally this place is easy for rangers, but hitting them with arrows is not always easy, and mages can take them out easier but run out of mana... You¡¯re just cheating both.¡±


    He toned this like it was a negative thing for the other, but Sam could hear his smile even before he turned around.


    Sam also felt rather good about the situation. Though his telekinetic combat had started rather weak and hard to use, he had long since realised the exponential increase in its practicality and damage output. In the beginning, even Sam didn¡¯t realise it, but Janik did. Something Sam would always be grateful for. He would probably have figured it out eventually but Janik¡¯s support helped Sam¡¯s beginnings considerably.


    ¡°How much damage can you do now, if everything hits?¡± Janik asked Sam as he walked closer to him and Dia.


    ¡°If everything hits, not counting critical hits or anything else, 202 damage.¡± Sam had done the math when he stocked up. The Moonblade had a damage rating of 40, Shadowfang and Bleeding Edge had 20, the Vampiric dagger had 15, Short Sword was on 7, and all his 20 daggers were on 5.


    ¡°Ah... well... That doesn¡¯t make me feel envious at all.¡± Janik commented surprisingly honestly as he sheathed his swords.


    He had shared his damage before, the main difference was that he didn¡¯t have any good weapons, so it might be worth doing some trade down the road with him. He could do 40 damage with one hit, which wasn¡¯t more than the Moonblade, but he did it with 10 damage swords. This was also why he was so annoyed at Sam getting the Moonblade, because its damage rating of 40, in Janik¡¯s hands would do 160 damage per hit, as per Janik¡¯s math back when the Moonblade was rewarded to Sam.


    A good thing was that, in a pinch, if Sam couldn¡¯t do enough damage, he could loan Janik the Moonblade for a group damage increase, which was always nice.


    ¡°Ah well...¡± Janik ended his little complaining moment with a sigh before he vaguely gestured to the three dead ravenfolk. ¡°You mind getting their cores before we push on?


    Sam didn¡¯t have anything to add to the complaint, and he did have an easier, or rather cleaner time when getting the cores. The first Ravenfolk was a bit messy to get the core out of, as he didn¡¯t know exactly where it was, but after figuring that out the other two were much easier.


    Dia looked at the massacre-looking dissection with a curious expression, seeming to wonder what he was doing.


    Pointing at the dead birdmen on the ground she turned towards Sam. ¡°Rukna?¡±


    Sam knew this word! Shaking his head at first as he confirmed ¡°No. No Rukna.¡± He knew the... Dia-language, whatever it was called, for No was the Yap-sound, but he couldn¡¯t properly make it, and he had taught Dia yes and no in English, so that was easier for him.


    But, after he had replied no, he wondered as he turned to Janik. ¡°Are... they edible?¡±


    ¡°I... don¡¯t know.¡± Janik replied surprisingly swiftly and without any weird expressions that Sam somewhat expected. ¡°It just feels weird thinking about eating anything even vaguely humanoid... But... I guess predators can eat most things with muscle?¡± He seemed a little curious at the end before he turned back to Sam.


    ¡°Was that what she asked? That word, Rukna, is related to food?¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡± Sam confirmed. ¡°As far as I understand, that word means ¡®food¡¯.¡± Making air quotes around ¡®food¡¯ he turned back to Dia. He shrugged as he replied ¡°Food?¡±. Really hoped that shrugging was a translatable expression.


    Instead, he chose to make it a learning experience. One he wondered how she would react to. Having already taken out the cores of the monsters, he hovered the crystalline pearl-looking rough spheres in front of Dia. ¡°Core.¡± He pointed at them as she looked at them.


    She looked at him and back at the cores. ¡°C.. Core?¡± Her pronunciation was a bit off but perfectly understandable.


    Sam smiled back. ¡°Yes. Core! Good job.¡± As she seemed to get it, he handed over a dagger to another Psyhand to move it over to her and give her some head pats as a reward. She seemed to like them, even though she jolted slightly as soon as the hand made contact. Perhaps randomly placing a hand on her in a combat-possible environment was not the best timing. He made a mental note to let her know about it the next time.


    She leaned into the invisible hand as he gave her some rewarding petting as he used the hands holding the cores to put them into his backpack.


    As he turned towards Janik he had a super wide smile, sporting the same expression as he did earlier when they had a moment, like a parent taking in the cuteness of his child doing something adorable.


    Not being able to take this seriously, Sam returned a dissatisfied stare before continuing down the path towards the valley. Janik followed after Sam passed him as Dia trotted along, her ears twitching back and forth as she reacted to anything happening around them.


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    The walk down into the valley took some time, it wasn¡¯t that it was very problematic to traverse, but rather that they had to keep checking things they were uncertain about, the possibility of being attacked at any time was the main issue. As they entered the cloud layer everything took more time as it made just seeing the ground harder, only being able to see the ground a step or two ahead. Sheathing his weapons and using his Psyhands to touch and feel the ground ahead, helped Sam, Dia looked surprisingly adept at this and Janik just seemed to stumble forward not considering much, but doing it with an odd level of fluidity.


    Eventually, they exited into the valley itself, below the fog or clouds, letting them get a proper first look at it. It was almost paradise-like. Though they couldn¡¯t see too far into the distance as there were parts of the fog still lingering at a lower altitude, the grass was green and healthy, and the thick forest of trees and plants was lush and growing well. There were several ravenfolk flying in the distance, but still being a few hundred yards ahead of them, they didn¡¯t seem to notice the group by the time they had disappeared into the thick forest.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t this forest a bit too thick?¡± Sam asked the group, but mostly aimed at Janik as Dia didn¡¯t understand more than a few words.


    ¡°What do you mean? It looks normal to me?¡± Janik replied, not seeming to get Sam¡¯s point.


    ¡°If this is a Ravenfolk Dungeon, why is it so dense? Won¡¯t that make flying through it problematic?¡± Sam looked at the trees and imagined a Ravenfolk, the kind they had fought a few times now, trying to find a place to land. Something smaller can make it through, but a man-sized creature with wings will have more problems.


    ¡°Hmm... Now that you mention it...¡± Janik commented as he took out his phone, checking a few things on it before he turned to Sam. ¡°It seems there are also Goblins and Harpies in this dungeon. The Ravenfolk are the main targets and give the most XP, but as you guessed they usually don¡¯t come down into the thicker part of the forest, the Goblins and Harpies live there, in the more open areas there might be a mix.¡±


    Scrolling back and forth on his phone, his eyes darting back and forth as he did so before he finally locked the screen and put it in his pocket. ¡°There are more of the Harpies and Goblins than the Ravenfolk, though the Ravenfolk are the most dangerous one-on-one, the others are more organized. They don¡¯t fight amongst themselves so it¡¯s everyone against us.¡±


    Though it sounded like a horrible situation, Janik was smiling as he pulled out his blades. He looked like he was enjoying this more than he perhaps should be.


    Trekking through the forest, became surprisingly easy compared to before. The shared experience of the group, having four sources of perceptive eyes, ears and noses as they snuck through the forest, they managed to find the locals before they found the group. Dia¡¯s perception was the most acute so she found most of them before the others, quickly becoming the scout and alarm of the group. When they did find someone, as soon as Sam saw them he took care of them swiftly and without issue.


    It was almost strange to Sam how easy this felt, he knew from the information Janik gave him earlier that the monsters in Dungeons were somewhat ¡®dumber¡¯ than the ones outside of it. Perhaps that was just how the System handled the Dungeons. As the layout changed a bit between runs of the same Dungeons, it made things easier for it to handle. Or perhaps it was just that the Dungeon Instance wasn¡¯t considered as real as anything outside of it, meaning they never evolved into getting a proper culture or something? Sam had no idea, he was considering diving deeper into this later. Since Dia had emotions, personal thoughts, wishes and whatnot, it was clear she was not just ¡®some Dungeon creature¡¯, but she was still a System-created one. Likewise were the Kobolds and other Aetherians living on Earth or in Atheria settlements... it was strangely confusing.


    The only new thing in this dungeon at this point was the first few Harpies. They were much faster than the ravenfolk, given their smaller size, though they were just as easy to fight even with their increased mobility. Sam didn¡¯t show any aiming with a bow or something pointing out where things were coming from, like a weapon or spell, meaning that the locals had huge problems realizing what they needed to dodge from. He hit more than he missed and saved a few instances of enemies showing up after he had attacked further away, the others in the party didn¡¯t have to attack much.


    The 26 Goblins and 22 Harpies they had found so far fell even before they were a proper danger. The main reason for this was Sam¡¯s remote-attacking style. The few that managed to get close were expertly taken down by Dia and Janik.


    Though the shared XP had barely made a dent in Sam¡¯s progression, and barely anything in Elara¡¯s progression, Dia had levelled up thrice and was about halfway to the next level. She was now level 13 and had two more she could get before the level cap stopped her. He had put one of the points in Vitality, bumping her health to 170, and the two others in Dex, upgrading her damage a little bit.


    ¡°This... is oddly boring...¡± Janik commented. ¡°Though I¡¯m 20 Experience away from levelling, it¡¯s been so long since last time, this is going to be good!


    He looked pumped like he wanted to rush in and just find the first and next best thing. But, his cautious nature had him remain surprisingly calm as soon as he started moving. It was good to see that he was practising what he preached about patience and safety.


    Sam had to admit that he really, really lucked out when it came to his first companion and Player mentor.


    Continuing forward, looking for the next group of enemies, they came to a clearing in the thick forest, it opened up considerably and seemed to have some ruins of some old, forgotten buildings. They were once made by stacking large stones on top of each other, filling the space between them with some cement-like plaster, or whatever it was. The remaining walls and the odd stones here and the only things showing that the buildings once existed. Though there was very little in the sense of shelter, there was plenty in the sense of cover, lots of walls, piles of rocks and fallen pillars. They remained there for a few minutes, the quest log showed that there were 30 monsters left, not counting the boss. They had met surprisingly few Ravenfolk, hinting that there could be a bunch more left. And since this was the first proper area in the forest that they could comfortably move, there were probably a few in here.


    After they had remained on the edge of the clearing, listening and trying to figure out what was living in the area.


    ¡°Var lokta ror.¡± Dia comments to Sam after having listened for a while.


    Sam nodded and turned to Janik. ¡°She can hear six.¡± There was a strange feeling of pride in understanding her sentence. He knew how to count to ten in her language, and anything above ten was just ¡®many¡¯ or ¡®more than ten¡¯, he didn¡¯t know but since they had five finges on each hand it kind of made sense that their counting system would stop there for now.


    Janik smiled and nodded. ¡°It¡¯s good to have our little radar with us.¡±


    It was a weird compliment but Sam couldn¡¯t argue with his logic. Patting Dia with his hand, as she was within reach, felt appropriate before they continued.


    ¡°Let¡¯s try and sneak, take them out silently so we don¡¯t get swarmed.¡± As the team leader, Janik explained the very simple tactic.


    It was hard to translate this to Dia, but she seemed to understand their actions so far. However, this did make Sam realise that he needed to put in some extra effort to learn her language or have her learn English when they got back. It was nice how easily she picked what to do based on their actions, but communication would make tactics much easier.


    Sam nodded to Janik, and they started moving, Janik went in first and ran as silently as he could over to the first point of cover, which was a collapsed wall. After he had made it there he spent a few seconds looking around a corner, showing Sam two fingers. He waited a few long seconds before he beaconed them to come.


    Seeing a signal to move, Sam motioned for Dia to follow before he ran over as silently as he could. Dia did as told and made practically zero sounds as she moved, putting even his item-boosted stealth skill to shame. That¡¯s what you get when you compare yourself to a professional, after all.


    Janik motioned for Sam to come closer and look around the corner, swapping locations he did as instructed and saw two Ravenfolk fighting over something dead in a clearing between where the buildings once were, pieces of meat and gore were smeared across their beaks. It was hard to see what it was as it had been mauled so hard, but both had their backs towards Sam.


    Turning to Janik he made a shanking motion in the air with an empty hand while looking at him questioningly.


    Janik nodded, looking quite eager, probably for his level-up.


    Sam looked back around the corner and analysed the situation. They were both within his Area, and there was no need to not use the same tactic as before, splitting up his weapons accordingly Sam waited for a moment they looked focused on their food. It didn¡¯t take many seconds of waiting before one of them dove in to get a grab to bite, which caused the other one to react, poking him with his beak. This looked like a good moment.


    Sam sent his weapons towards them.

 Ch.053 - Slam

    Having taken his time to aim as two Ravenfolk were arguing, they weren¡¯t moving much, after all, he got a pretty good aim before his weapons made contact. The landing attacks were mostly critical hits, taking them both out instantly in an extremely dreadful sight as they exploded in cuts, blood and dismembered limbs.


    Pulling his blades back, Sam heard heavy steps. It didn¡¯t take long before a hulking, slightly forward leant Ravenfolk walked over to the two dead ones. It was easily twice Sam¡¯s height and looked much heavier and beefier than the others. Feeling like this was a Strength focused creature, compared to the Dexteriry focused the other leaner creatures were, it felt strangely more intimidating.


    It smelled the two ex-allies before it let out three powerful cawing sounds. This should easily be hearable from a considerable distance.


    ¡°Fuck, attack it now!¡± Janilk commented in a slight panic. ¡°It¡¯s calling reinforcements, there¡¯s almost 30 monsters left. We need to beat the dungeon and leave!¡±


    Not waiting for Sam¡¯s response, Janik adjusted the grip of his swords and dashed around the corner, heading towards the hulking creature.


    Sam took the stealthy approach and peered from his hiding spot, sending his blades forward. Dia seemed to understand the situation and dashed around the corner, taking in the sight as she followed Janik without hesitation.


    Sam¡¯s blades reached the target first, three cheap daggers missed but everything else hit, the Vampiric dagger even triggered its Life Steal, and though Sam didn¡¯t need healing at the moment it still did its damage.


    However, only the named weapons seemed to bite into its body, the cheap daggers didn¡¯t seem to do shit and simply bounced off its feathers.


    Janik and Dia made it there about the same time, but the Raven stomped into the ground with a powerful cry, creating a powerful shockwave which not only stopped them in their tracks but sent them backwards. Both tripped from the force but before they rolled more than a few steps they had managed to right themselves to their feet and again closed the distance.


    Before Sam could send his second volley of attacks, he noticed a dart slamming into the stone wall next to him, before he could react to the second one he felt the large spike pierce his right shoulder.


    [ Armour, Defence 40 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 151 / 165 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€? ]


    He was very happy about his increased health, as the 14 damage that made it through would have taken about half his health before, this felt almost like a dream in a weird way.


    Turning towards where the darts came from, he had to drop some daggers by dismissing some Psyhands, only to re-manifest them at his current location to intercept and deflect more incoming darts. He managed to handle the remaining four darts from the other two Ravenfolk, properly realizing that there were three of them that managed to show up behind him.


    By the time their charge started, he had pulled in most of his weapons, all but the four dropped cheap daggers he needed to get enough hands to handle the darts. Though the darts weren¡¯t meant to be used as stabbing weapons, they still had a damage rating, so it worked for his purposes.


    His weapons had returned by his side but were sent forward like before, splitting up the attack between two targets to make sure he had the highest chance of taking them out.


    Both of his targets exploded in a shower of blood, they were close enough that their momentum carried them towards Sam, forcing him to throw himself to the side to avoid getting crushed, though his dodging did nothing to stop him from being sprayed in bird blood. In doing so he was an easy enough target for the last attacker.


    Not managing to grab Sam, he still landed his enhanced claws across his body, cutting him with the blades attached to the feet.


    [ Armour, Defence 40 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 116 / 165 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€??? ]


    The damage that made it through this time would have killed him, even with his armour. But this was not the time to relish his improved Health, he had moments left before the Raven, now having landed, stomped towards him with its wings out and beak ready.


    Pulling all his weapons towards him, yanking the darts out of the corpses in the same movement. Not expecting the attack to come from behind him, most of the weapons landed and through pulling them towards him he again got splattered in blood as the raven burst before falling over mid-step, landing only a few steps away from him.


    Not taking more than a few breaths of rest, Sam got back on his feet and rounded the corner, checking up on how his group was doing. There were four dead Ravenfolk, in addition to the two he took out before this started, but there were also two Goblins and three Harpies. They must have come in while he was busy. It was frightening how much a few seconds could change everything. As he tried to find out what target to attack first, the lord took a solid bite out of Janik¡¯s shoulder, which looked to have hurt him considerably.


    The answer was easy, the Lord needed to be focused.


    Launching all his weapons at different incoming enemies, was mainly a distraction, although many of them landed surprisingly well, it wasn¡¯t enough to make any kills but should make it easier for his allies.


    [ Time remaining: 23 / 29 seconds ]


    Gambling on this working, as birds had lighter bones and bodies due to flight, and the wings the Lord had looked like they had been used.


    Reaching out with all his Psyhands he grabbed the Lord and lifted him. The bird started cawing in a weird panic and tried to flap away, but couldn¡¯t move his wings properly due to the Psyhands holding onto his body. Sam was slightly relieved as he felt the bird lift; his gamble was worth it. The bird was only lifted about Sam¡¯s height in the air before triggering Force Launch.


    [ Time remaining: 17 / 29 seconds ]


    The force was aimed straight down, slamming the raven into the compacted dirt with surprising force. Sickening cracks of broken bones accompanied its pained squawk as it impacted the hard ground with a mighty thud.


    [ Time remaining: 16 / 29 seconds ]


    Managing to move and try to force itself back on its feet, it started shouting out another caw, but Sam lifted it yet again, using a valuable second to get it back into the air before forcing it back into the ground with the same force.


    [ Time remaining: 11 / 29 seconds ]


    Uncomfortable sounds of more bones breaking alongside squelching, coughing of blood and a heavier pained grunt escaped the lord. The battlefield had turned into an eerie silence as everyone was looking at the lord being helplessly rag-dolled into the ground with great force, becoming more and more broken each time it happened.


    Sam repeated the process one more before he lost the time needed, lifting him again, like before, consumed a second before he Force Launched it back into the ground.


    [ Time remaining: 5 / 29 seconds ]


    Though it didn¡¯t seem to have enough force in it to even squawk or grunt in pain, Sam didn¡¯t want to risk it. Having only remaining ¡®time¡¯ for one launch, but not enough to lift him again, Sam aimed for a nearby ruin wall and triggered the final Force Launch.


    [ Time remaining: 0 / 29 seconds ]


    He could feel the boosted power leave him, it didn¡¯t affect his normal abilities but the boost was now gone. The Lord lifted off the ground and was flung into the wall a few solid steps away from where it had been slammed. The raven coughed up a sizeable amount of blood as it impacted the stone wall, which in turn lost structural integrity and collapsed down away from the lord. Though the wall didn¡¯t land on the Ravenfolk leader, this time when he fell to the ground there was no more movement.


    This whole event took less than 10 seconds, and after it was done. Everyone somewhat snapped back into combat mode had the locals fled the scene and headed for height or the forest. The group chose not to follow them, although Dia looked at Sam to see what to do. As he didn¡¯t react to them leaving she seemed to decide to wait, and rather opt to run over to Sam, looking at him with extreme worry as he was caked in blood.


    ¡°Sa!¡± Shouting his name as she moved, she gave him a once over as she spoke to him with a shaky voice. ¡°Sa kirn. Sa krila?¡± He understood that she was referring to him, one of those words probably meant hurt or blood, he had no idea and didn¡¯t know if he should respond positively or negatively.


    Though some of the blood was his, 90% of it wasn¡¯t. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m fine.¡± He smiled at her, knowing that the words might not mean much to her, but at least he could try and act fine. Checking the party health he could see that Dia¡¯s was fine, slightly higher than his but since she had a slightly higher max than him it meant that she had taken about the same damage. Not bad given that she had shit-tier armour compared.


    As he worried about HP, another window opened displaying Janik¡¯s health. Feeling somewhat dumb for not considering that before, of course, he could see party members'' health if they allowed it...


    Janik was currently at a rounded 50 out of his 147 max,


    ¡°You took quite a lot of damage.¡± Sam commented towards his wounded ally.


    ¡°Yeah, but I also finally levelled, so don¡¯t worry about it.¡± Janik smiled back as his health suddenly filled back up to full.


    Looking at the status messages, he saw that Dia had also levelled up just now,


    [ Dia XP to lv.15: 509 / 1946 ¨€???? ]


    He put her point into Vitality, not only bumping her health to 170 but also restoring it to full. Also noting that Janik¡¯s health was 157 rather than a bit lower, hinting that he put his in Vitality as well. This XP was a drop in the ocean of how much XP he needed to level up, but it was going to be interesting to check the next Floor soon. Picking up all his weapons around the scene, needing a few moments to find them all, he started getting the cores of the dead monsters.


    As he worked, he had a glance at the quest log.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Ravenlord. 1/1


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters: 63/80 ]


    It displayed as complete, even though the Optional clear condition was not yet done, asking him if he wanted to complete the quest or not.


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    ¡°Now...¡± Janik started to get Sam out of this thousand-yard stare. ¡°I have to say that I¡¯m grateful that you managed to take out the Raven beast... but Jesus that looked brutal...¡± He didn¡¯t look at Sam as he said it, he was looking at the dead raven lord looking like he was run over by a truck.


    ¡°Yeah... I thought about when you mentioned that you would have taken damage when we tested it, and since he was resisting my smaller weapons, not to mention that he cawed some orders before, so I thought to use another tactic.¡± Sam replied dryly. In his mind, this was just what he felt was the most logical way of handling it. Stopping him from ordering or informing the others, making sure he was ¡®taken out¡¯ of the fray while he was being killed. He originally considered sending him upwards but since he had wings, he didn¡¯t expect that to be as practical. And slamming him into the ground could also perhaps negate some of his damage resistance. Based on his earlier experience, the Defence rating didn¡¯t trigger on all forms of damage.


    ¡°Yeah... I get that, I just kind of feel sorry for the guy... you know?¡± Janik didn¡¯t look like he meant it sympathetically, perhaps he was just recalling his moment being flung into a wall.


    ¡°Though I understand the paradox of us being the invaders here, he attacked you.¡± Stopping himself from going into more details he realised that the issue that happened in their earlier sparring sat deeper than he expected. Though... in a strange sense, all the Players were at fault for attacking the Dungeon creatures, they were the invaders and whatnot, but at the same time it was how the system was built up and... It was a strangely complicated thought.


    But, now that he was there, he felt that it was him or them, and if the system was going to fuck with him with all the shit that had not only happened lately but earlier in his life; then he was in his full right in returning the favour.


    ¡°Well... Yeah, I don¡¯t know. On one hand, I¡¯m all for it, it just looked a bit brutal.¡± As Janik turned back to Sam, his smile looked honest again.


    Sam understood what he meant, but then again, if this brutality worked as a kind of fear or deterrent for the others, that worked fine in his book.


    It didn¡¯t take too long for the core retrieval was complete, both Dia and Janik had been on guard the entire time that Sam used to get them, which wasn¡¯t a bad way of handling things.


    ¡°That¡¯s the last of it.¡± Sam stated having bagged the final core. ¡°Should we hunt down the others, or just leave?¡±


    Janik thought about it for a few moments. ¡°I think we¡¯ll just leave. Sure we¡¯re losing out on the Experience but... the time we use to chase them down can take... a while, as most of them can fly.¡±


    Sam nodded, it made sense, also to him 10 000 XP wasn¡¯t an insane amount anymore. This whole dungeon didn¡¯t give him that much compared to a few kills on the island. And considering this had him realize what Janik meant making PvP a slippery slope...


    ¡°Yeah, I agree.¡± Sam commented. He was more eager to see the second Floor than continue farming in this place.


    ¡°Then let¡¯s confirm this completion and get out of here.¡± Janik smiled. A crystal appeared in his hand before a few seconds later he disappeared in a white flash.


    Sam accepted the completion which manifested a crystal in his hand, Dia levelled up and he got 6153 Experience as his share. Since it was more than the 5000 he should have gotten, meant that Dia had again hit the level Cap and would remain there until he levelled up again.


    Putting her extra point into Vitality, he felt that he wanted her Health on at least 200 before he went too deep into other things, at least for now. He made sure that everything looked fine before accepting the question about leaving the Dungeon.


    Manifesting back out in the path towards the entry to the Dungeon, he found Janik there as expected. Since none of them got any neat gear and only the crystal, both failed the 10% chance to get it. However, he did see that Dia had picked up a large feather and was fastening it to her hair, she looked oddly happy about this process so Sam didn¡¯t draw attention to it.


    Nodding downhill, Janik motioned for them to follow him. ¡°I think this was a good test, and I feel that we can start looking around on the second Floor.¡± Taking out his phone he starts looking into things. ¡°Yeah, see here.¡± He shows some information about the second Floor compared to the first.


    Though the levels of things are much higher, starting at 21 out in the wild, they went all the way up to the higher side at 40. The first Floor started at Level 1 and went up to 20, with the highest level boss being 25. Likewise, the highest-level boss on the Second Floor was 45. In general, things were higher ranked and even at the same rank and comparable level between the Floors, everything was a bit harder on the second Floor, more Health, hitting harder, and the introduction of Defence ratings on most things.


    ¡°Well, I suppose this means that I need to learn that consolidation attack or upgrade my gear.¡± Sam commented dryly. The consolidation attack, or whatever it would be named, would probably be the smartest to learn, after all, it would be something that he could use for any level. Getting better weapons would just make learning it easier. In a way throwing money at the problem rather than learning to work around it. As Janik stated, learning the special attack really only benefits multi-weapon users, which wasn¡¯t as normal as just hitting with a single powerful weapon or attack, so it didn¡¯t come along with general information.


    ¡°You have some time to try things out on the way, it¡¯s going to take us a while to get back, as we need to be in the transport area to change floors or leave.¡± Janik smiled. ¡°Though... having said that-¡± he mused to himself as he looked to the sky in thought. ¡°-I don¡¯t know how you¡¯ll get a confirmation of it working if you use a tree or something...¡±


    ¡°Oh... what did you use?¡± Sam asked. Janik explained that he trained and tested to find a way to trigger it, but he didn¡¯t detail how he did that safely.


    ¡°I used a special training dummy at TAC. They have special training rooms with special dummies, you can somewhat set-¡± Janik used air quotes when he said ¡®set¡¯. ¡°-the defensive value and damage of your weapons. Sure you won¡¯t actually do that damage to the dummy but it can simulate the damage through the System... somehow. I never really got how it works but it helped me.¡±


    Sam thought about it for a moment. Without some feedback if it was working or not, he would have to just try again and again, hoping that it would work out enough for him to unlock the skill, but... That was proably not going to be the smart way of doing this, it would be highly dependent on luck, and he wouldn¡¯t learn much that way.


    ¡°An alternative.¡± Janik added. ¡°Is to find a monster or something with armour, and try again and again that way. Though you¡¯d need a monster with a defence rating so... it¡¯d be more dangerous.¡± He didn¡¯t seem too good about that idea, and Sam couldn¡¯t fault him.


    This was an important skill to master, especially if he was going to succeed against targets with Defence later in time. And if they were heading for the second Floor now, he might need it as soon as tomorrow. But without any good way of learning it in time, he would just have to work around it.


    ¡°Though, according to the information app-¡± Janik had taken out his phone and was scrolling something. ¡°-It seems that the first areas we¡¯ll be in will only have a few targets with Defence, but every dungeon has it so... That might be a good place to learn?¡±


    This gave Sam a slight sense of relief, at least he would get to use his blade swarm in the start, and Janik did have a point, finding a target with a defence rating and somehow abusing their existence for this, could be the way to go. Sam realised that he didn¡¯t consider this kind of potential torture to be a problem, he considered them just a monster in the Tower. Though this was fine in a way, it also had him consider Dia¡¯s existence. Sure, she was different but at the same time...


    Sam decided to mimic Janik and took out his phone. He hadn¡¯t taken the time to play with the new device that Janik helped him get, but that was mainly due to focusing on other things. There wasn¡¯t any internet in Aetheria but at least he could use the pre-loaded apps and information, he focused on the information app that TAC had created. It was well structured and had a lot of good information, right now he looked into the Beastfolk and tower monsters, looking for information surrounding their differences, since some lived and worked on Earth, but most of them were killed on sight.


    Dia was interested in the device he was holding, though she seemed more interested in the pictures and videos, being somewhat surprised when they moved and the sounds they played. He spent a bit of time playing with that, taking a picture of himself to show her that his likeness was captured, then doing the same to her. She took a moment to realize that it was her, but afterwards, she was incredibly interested. Sam couldn¡¯t imagine that she had seen more than herself in still water, so this might have been very weird to her.


    Elara also seemed interested in the device, but she seemed to understand it differently than Dia. Perhaps that was due to the age difference as Elara had, in her short life, seen these as normal in almost eveyrones hands. Dia hadn¡¯t seen this kind of thing before recently.


    Almost suddenly, darkness had crept up on them, and Janik had steered their path towards a forest rather than keeping in the open where they could see far. It didn¡¯t take them much effort to find a good place to camp, and as they were setting up everything, Sam wondered just how normal people sneaking up on you are, he had only camped once in Atheria, and it happened right away there.


    ¡°Sooo.... Should we expect company?¡± Sam asked Janik after the camp was almost done.


    ¡°No, not this time. Though it turned out positive... all things considered, last time. I don¡¯t want that to happen again. So I got myself an alarm.¡± Janik replied as he took something out of his backpack. It was a simple tripod with segmented arms, as well as what looked like a 360 camera.


    ¡°This is a simple, but bit expensive trick, a 360 camera with infrared mode and a good battery. This model has a movement triggering recording, which has been wired up to an alarm.¡± He looked proud of himself as he moved it around while looking at his phone.


    Sam knew of the kind, many action cameras had these kinds of apps you could connect with and see a live feed. If this thing could see in darkness and trigger an alarm, it was pretty good at keeping a lookout.


    There were plenty of uncertainties, like if something was invisible or just got them faster than they could react, but in those cases, it would be a problem even if they wer both awake... So this wasn¡¯t a bad compromise, to be honest.


    Discussing a good spot to put it, and testing it out a few times, which startled Dia every time, they eventually got their little safety measure set up. As they finally decided to go to sleep, Sam realised he was happy that the TAC camping kits came with a large sleeping bag, probably to have a one-size-fits-all kind of deal when handing them out, as there were enough large men and women in the world. However, Sam¡¯s modest build made enough room for Dia, who was almost aggressively adamant about her choice to crawl into it next to Sam.


    At least he wouldn¡¯t be cold tonight.


    They all had opted to sleep in their armour, a recommendation from Janik, at least for now. Based on the last time they slept outside, Sam didn¡¯t have a problem with his idea. Dia refused, not seeming to like this kind of clothing much. Sam didn¡¯t mind though he had to force himself to pretend to not notice Janik¡¯s smile as they crawled into the sleeping bag.


    The night was surprisingly calm and nice, but the next morning Sam woke abruptly to the sound of the alarm!

 Ch.054 - Learning

    Getting up in a jolt, Sam was pulled to the side as Dia scrambled herself out of their shared sleeping bag. Sam, not needing his own hands, Psyhand grabbing all his weapons. By the time they were airborne and out of their sheaths, he looked at a slightly panicked Janik, not in the sense of them being attacked but in a guilty and flustered way.


    It didn¡¯t take long for them, or at least for Sam, to realise that Janik had set off the alarm. He was frantically pressing things on the camera, which made the alarm sound, and since his focus was on the device it all came together. Janik had just triggered it as he was turning it off.


    ¡°Fucking hell...¡± Sam vaguely mumbled as he lay back down, still in his bag. He looked up at Dia who looked ready to claw the shit out of anything and everything. Elara was also calming down around his neck, he hadn¡¯t properly noticed her before but even she was ready to strike at anything.


    ¡°Dia. No Kra.¡± He got her attention, he didn¡¯t do the ¡®yap¡¯ sound well but at least she knew yes and no. Also not knowing any good words for combat, danger or similar, he opted to just say No Punch. Which seemed to do the trick as she calmed down after taking a last cursory check around. Perhaps that Sam calmed down as well was what made it work.


    ¡°Sorry... I.. I¡¯m not used to these yet.¡± Janik commented as he had managed to turn off the alarm. ¡°At least it works, right?¡± His frantic expression changed into his normal goofy smile.


    And in his defence, this is better than being attacked and it was a somewhat acceptable test of the system. Just a shame to wake up with that kind of shock.


    Deciding that he might as well get up, Sam started climbing out of his sleeping bag, unzipping it and getting properly ready. At this time Dia had commented about toilet and disappeared into the woods around them only to return a few minutes later.


    Janik and Sam did the same not long after. Setting up a camp stove they got some food going to Dia¡¯s surprise about the weird heat, sound and smell coming from the metallic device used for this purpose, she hadn¡¯t seen a camp stove before. When eating, Dia sat herself at Sam¡¯s side, nudging herself against him, slowly wagging her tail back and forth as they ate. Though Sam wasn¡¯t entirely used to this kind of passive intimacy, he couldn¡¯t complain... Though he could complain about Janik¡¯s soft smile, it seemed he was enjoying them doing things like these but... it felt kind of weird being the target of such an expression.


    After they had eaten and packed up, they continued on their way, Dia only accepting being dressed as they were leaving. As they were walking, Sam was not only trying to understand Dia¡¯s language more, but he was trying to teach her more English. He started with the English words for Dia¡¯s language, making it easier to explain and build some form of foundation. Using Janik as an explanations to broaden things to compare and point at, as an example; Human, if Sam pointed only at himself she might confuse it as Sam, male, mate, whatever part he¡¯s pointing at and so on. But having more people to point at... he might still end up with ¡°male¡± but at least it helped a little...


    Though the English language was alien to her, she picked up things surprisingly well, making Sam think she might have a linguistical mind.


    ¡°You should get her some simple teaching aid. There are cheap picture books used to help toddlers learn the simple things, I used them a lot before.¡± Janik commented after the duo had been working back and forth for a while.


    ¡°That¡¯s a good idea.¡± Sam agreed.


    Janik had a good point, Sam didn¡¯t have much experience with them but now that he mentioned it, he knew of them well enough. There were bound to be phone apps, videos and all sorts of aid that could speed up this process. Given the amount of options to learn English, it might be easier to have her learn that, and then use her English to help Sam learn her language.


    It was a shame that there wasn¡¯t any internet in Aetheria, or he could download the app as they walked. He would have to look into that as they got back to Earth.


    ¡°I¡¯ll get some apps or videos when we get back, teach her how to use the phone and she can probably learn something that way.¡±


    Janik nodded with a smile. ¡°That¡¯s probably also a good way to do it. She seems to pick things up fast, so I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll take too long.¡±


    Sam and Janik passed the time walking by trying to teach Dia English, she picked up some random words but she wasn¡¯t to the point of stringing together organic sentences just yet. The times when Janik and Sam spoke together, Dia was carrying Elara who was helping to teach her English, though mostly focusing on the animalistic sides of things.


    They were lucky enough to not be attacked by anything, they saw various creatures in the distance but it was easy enough to just not enter their domain. Dia¡¯s sense of smell, sight and hearing also allowed them to walk around most of the most active areas, so though Sam didn¡¯t get to train the consolidation attack thing, it was still fine with some downtime before they got to the next floor.


    Including small breaks for rest, toilet and food, the whole day was spent walking. Though they had done a similar thing yesterday, Sam was still somewhat surprised at the Player¡¯s stamina. He would probably not feel as passive about this long walk as he was had he been a normal person. Based on the information about the size of the first floor, the total length they were to walk from the Raven Dungeon to the entry area would be somewhere around 100km/62 miles. Doable in two days if you walk most of it and if you¡¯re in very good shape, but before becoming a Player, Sam was not in good shape.


    ¡°There we go!¡± Janik commented shortly after exiting yet another forest. He was looking into the distance, specifically at a small village. Sam recognized it as well as the village close to the entry area, meaning they were now at the end of this trek!


    It was slowly becoming dark again, meaning they had been walking all day again.


    ¡°I say we go back to Earth and set out for the second Floor tomorrow. Since you¡¯re paying for your room anyway, you might as well use it.¡±


    Sam agreed though he was fine camping outside, it was not only safer but more comfortable using the room at TAC. Besides, as Janik said; he was paying for it regardless.


    ¡°Also... could I borrow Elara until tomorrow?¡± Janik added, sounding almost hesitant to ask. ¡°Grace took a liking to her.¡±


    Sam lifted an eyebrow, he wasn¡¯t against it, in his mind, it was up to Elara entirely. But before he could respond Janik had already fished out his phone and found a photo to show. It was a picture of a young blonde girl, who looked to be 6-7 years old, sharing a part of her food with Elara who was coiled on the table, eating from the fork the girl used to feed her.


    He couldn¡¯t do much more than smile, that was incredibly adorable, and Elara looked happy in the image as well.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s not up to me, really.¡± Sam started his reply as he gently nudged Elara from his shoulder so he could look at her as he changed to speak to her directly. ¡°It¡¯s all up to you if you want to or not.¡±


    Elara smiled and nodded. ¡°I like Grace, if it¡¯s fine with you I can go with Janik and come back tomorrow.¡±


    The fact that she had this wish for herself made Sam feel surprisingly good about things. He always wanted Elara to have a hobby of her own, but he didn¡¯t expect it to come in the form of spending time with one of Janik¡¯s kids.


    ¡°Then there we have it.¡± Sam smiled as he lifted Elara¡¯s head towards Janik, letting her slither towards him. ¡°I don¡¯t mind if she wants to go..¡±


    Janik looked oddly relieved mixed with happiness. ¡°That¡¯s good to hear.¡± It almost looked like he was afraid of Sam saying no.


    Sam could understand the fear, he had been gone for a while and he might want to spend time with her, but at the same time, he intended to spend lots more time with them in the future so there wasn¡¯t a problem if one night here or there was spent apart. Especially since it worked out so well last time.


    Janik held out his arm towards Sam¡¯s, letting Elara reach out and move her weight over and coil up across Janik¡¯s shoulders.


    Before leaving, Sam decided to use her daily Venom and get another 16 toothpicks. Though they were probably not going to directly damage anyone on the second floor, they could be used for non-damaging attacks like needles in the eyes, it wouldn¡¯t damage the target but it would at least give the Venom a chance to apply. Saying their goodbyes they split up


    They kept walking until they got the popup menu for leaving, after which they found themselves on Earth a few seconds later.


    Splitting up Dia kept herself almost glued to Sam¡¯s side as soon as they left Aetheria for the scary concrete jungle, they headed back to his room at TAC. Sam¡¯s mind was on getting the apps and video material to teach her English, as this was a field he wasn¡¯t super stable in. He knew the language but he didn¡¯t have any proper idea of the path needed to teach someone the best way.


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    As they entered TAC, before heading to his room he popped by to sell the Cores they had gathered. A total of 28 Goblin cores, 26 Harpy cores, 9 Ravenfolk cores and the Raven boss, it all totalled $83 000. He asked if they could send half of it to Janik, though he did most of the work before the boss, he didn¡¯t mind splitting it for now, the man had a gaggle of kids to handle. Though Sam could use that to gear up better, the man needed it.


    Not long after they entered the apartment-like room. Dia turned to Sam.


    ¡°Sa¡± Asking his name seemed to mainly be to get his attention. ¡°Var hyr fara?"


    He understood the first word being referring to herself, but he didn¡¯t know the other words. However since she was tugging at her armour and dress, he assumed she was asking something about it, perhaps it was uncomfortable or too tight?


    Looking back at her confused, he understood what she meant in context as she started undressing. This made some sense, she seemed to have spent most of her time without clothing on the island, and it was probably more comfortable for her.


    Once she was done, though struggling a little with the armour, she looked much more comfortable as she exclaimed ¡°Kara!¡±


    Not knowing if that meant nude, comfortable, usual or something similar, he couldn¡¯t help himself smiling at her opposite reaction to being unclothed than the norm. This also felt like a good idea to reintroduce her to modern hygiene, so he moved to the bathroom, motioning for her to follow. She was hesitant, seeming to remember the room itself, but followed on his request. He still found her dislike of the toilet to be extremely amusing, but at least she was fine with the shower. Though their unclothed nature had other things happen as well, at least he got her a tiny bit more used to hygiene.


    However, he had a large problem with her brushing her teeth, even showing himself and starting the process to try and let her continue on herself didn¡¯t work as he hoped. She seemed to... tolerate... it when he brushed her teeth, but she refused to do it herself. He didn¡¯t want to force her so he decided to just brush them for her for now. He knew that in the wild she would never need this, but at the same time... he preferred pleasant breath on people, even more so someone he was intimate with. At least this would let her get used to it over time.


    Once everything was done, and most of her fur was dried, they moved into the living room of the apartment, he focused more on getting the proper apps on his phone, searching around to see what was good, during which she had taken to cleaning his hair according to her standard. It still felt weird but given her annoyance at the times he had her stop before, he let her do as she wanted. He didn¡¯t like how this... cleaned... his already clean hair, but it was important to her and it wasn¡¯t like he was trying to impress anyone else.


    The rest of the evening went to teach her how to interact with the phone once he had some good apps installed. He started with being the one who did the things for her, but also using her hands to navigate when needed she seemed to understand... enough, to get started. It used the microphone to let her try pronunciations, but Sam had to help her at times.


    Eventually, they retired to bed, and he was again reminded of how pleasant a good bed was. Dia liked it as well, seeming to find the springiness very entertaining. She didn¡¯t jump around as much as she liked to just get on all fours and fall sideways, only to get back up and do it again.


    The next day they woke up naturally, something Sam was getting used to, but doing so in a calm way like this with Dia wrapped around him was a very good way of waking up. As he checked the time the movement was enough to wake her up, not something he intended to but at least it solved the question about how to wake her. It was past noon and he saw that he had a few messages from Janik.


    One message just asked Sam to let him know when he was awake, so they could meet up and plan the day, the three others were pictures of Elara and Grace. One was Grace feeding her ice cream, another was Elara being bathed in the sink, and the last was Elara loosely wrapped around Grace as they slept. Sam couldn¡¯t help himself smiling yet again.


    Replying to the comment about waking up, he let Janik know and before Sam had even gotten out of bed he got a reply. Janik thought they could meet up in the training rooms, and get a head start on the thing they talked about.


    Sam thought it was a bit odd that he didn¡¯t mention the skill directly, but he might have his reasons. Agreeing to the message, and receiving a reply with a meeting time in about half an hour, he went through his morning routine.


    Dia was slightly less of a struggle to go through things, she was seemingly already... at least tolerating the different aspects of things. Still didn¡¯t like having her teeth brushed, but as it improved her breath as well as oral hygiene, Sam decided that she¡¯d just have to get used to it.


    Both of them got dressed and headed down, making their way to the training area, ignoring the comments from other Players who might be speaking just loud enough to overhear. They found Janik standing against the wall next to the door, looking at his phone with Elara draped across his shoulders.


    ¡°Ah, Sam!¡± Janik exclaimed, reaching out his closest arm as they got closer, letting Elara slither across and snuggle up against his neck as she coiled around him.


    He nodded towards the door a few moments after Elara had her moment, not waiting before entering.


    Sam followed him in to find an already prepared rectangular room. It was much narrower than the earlier ones he had used, however, it was both longer and looked ¡®smarter¡¯. There was a computer console not far from the door and a marked-up area at the end of it with a dummy inside. Next to the computer console was a collection of metal weapons, they looked dull but looked... different than normal metal weapons.


    Janik stated explaining as he pointed at the various parts. ¡°This is a room we normally have to pay for, I called in a favour so today¡¯s free, but keep that in mind for the future.¡± He had a better-than-thou smile for a brief moment, tooting his own horn, before continuing. ¡°The computer there is linked to the weapons and the dummy, this lets you simulate various damage ratings against various defences, you can also use it to test certain magics as it¡¯s highly resistant and as long as you don¡¯t go overboard you can test most stuff.¡±


    Turning to Sam he looked a bit serious. ¡°Only use the training weapons... actual weapons will damage stuff and... that¡¯s expensive to fix...¡± His tone of voice hinted that he had done that a lot before.


    Walking over to the console, he did a few things there before handing Sam a dagger. ¡°Here, this is now a 5-damage dagger, throw it at the dummy.¡±


    Sam Psyhand grabbed it and launched it at the dummy, it was a still-standing target so it was easy to hit. As he did a small screen to the side displayed Damage Rating: 5. Damage Delt: 5.


    Janik nodded to himself and did something on the computer again before turning to Sam. ¡°Now, use the same dagger and do it again.¡±


    Sam did as told, reaching out and bringing the dagger back, launching it again. The display updated to list Defence: 5. Damage Rating: 7. Damage Delt: 2.


    Though this was pretty much what Sam expected, it was interesting testing and verifying it like that. Janik returned to the console and did a few more things before he handed Sam three more daggers, giving him a total of four.


    Taking them and flailing them at the target listed four instances of the same math. Damage was set to 7, defense was set to 5 and 2 made it through per blade for a total of 8 damage dealt.


    ¡°Oh, this is perfect.¡± Sam commented with a wide smile.


    ¡°I know, right?!¡± Janik exclaimed back. ¡°It doesn¡¯t really matter what we set the damage and defence to, but we might as well leave it like this. It¡¯s set to ignore critical hits so you can just go nuts, if you get more than 8 damage we know you¡¯re getting it!¡± Janik sounded eager on Sam¡¯s behalf.


    ¡°So... I just aim all the blades to hit at the same time?¡± Sam confirmed, wanting to make sure before he spends too much time on this.


    ¡°Yep, though the timing until you get it needs to be pretty exact, and you can¡¯t just half-ass it either, I needed to put in proper attacking effort for it to finally trigger.¡± Janik looked a bit annoyed as he said that, his voice hinting that this was a struggle.


    ¡°Ok, so hit at the same time, exactly, until I get it.¡± Sam felt focused as he gathered the daggers at the same distance, aiming at the chest to give them a better chance to hit at the same time. To maximize control he opted to attack with the Psyhands and not launch them.


    Sending the four daggers towards the target he began!

 Ch.055 - Second Floor

    Elara, Dia and Janik sat near the door, beside the computer and were working on her language learning. Using Sam¡¯s phone he was helping her with pronunciation, and guidance and looked to treat her almost like he did with Sam; he was super helpful and seemingly took enjoyment in aiding. Janik was a strange man in one way, almost overly beneficial to the point that people might mistake it for him having an agenda, but at the same time, he never hid the reasons he did things. Like his training Sam, he never pretended that this was not for his gain, though helping Sam, and Dia, also helped him so it became a win/win situation.


    ¡°Ah, no. Stomach.¡± Janik patted his belly and emphasised the kch-like sound at the end of the word.


    ¡°Sto..ma... kkh?¡± Dia tried her best, struggling with pronouncing certain sounds. The app on Sam¡¯s phone registered it as wrong three times before she gave it a fourth attempt which it accepted.


    She looked at Janik with a victorious smile, he returned only positive and affirming words, keeping them short.


    This was them passing their time as Sam tried again, and again, and again to do this. He had been at it for what felt like hours, but he chose to not check how long it had taken. Trying different angles, different timings, different ranges. Any variable he could consider.


    But after doing that for a while, Janilk seemed to notice and told him to pick what felt the most likely to work and stay the course, he would fail a lot... a... lot... of times. But the more variables he added the harder it would be. Janik spent days to get this working, but he was alone without anyone with experience, at least Sam could use some of his friend''s experience.


    Listening to him he had opted for a simple chest-stab, mainly because of a large surface that was relatively flat, as far as a body went, which should make it at least a little bit easier to time it. He had several times considered just giving up for now and doing more of this later, or training on something they found on the second Floor, but... Janik shot that idea down instantly. Assuming a target with a Defence rating of 5, assuming everything hit and no crits or triggering of effects, this would lower Sam¡¯s theoretical damage of 202, or rather: 197, down to 77, which was a dangerously dramatic decrease when considering that the targets would be stronger there. Though he had alternatives like his Boost or Force Pulses, it was not a good idea to go in half-baked.


    Originally they planned to go to the second Floor and explore a bit, but after some talking during their long trek they agreed that it was much smarter to have this in the box first, it was annoying and would postpone their advancement, but Janik had become surprisingly hard on this.


    Sam let out a frustrated grunt, Dia looked at him with a worried expression but was stopped by Janik from both getting up and talking to him. Janik¡¯s smile calmed her down as he got her attention back to the language lesson.


    This continued for quite some time, needing both toilet and food breaks, taking a considerable time of the day.


    ¡°YES!¡± Sam shouted out, as the others turned towards him they found him with both fists in the air victoriously.


    The display listed the data the same, except the damage dealt was 23.


    ¡°I did it!¡± He turned towards the others looking incredibly happy.


    ¡°Don¡¯t get cocky.¡± Janik shut him down a bit, which was surprisingly uncharacteristic for him. ¡°I got too caught up in it as well at first... made it much harder the next few times. Analyse what you did and use it!¡±


    Sam¡¯s expression soured considerably, but he couldn¡¯t fault Janik¡¯s point. He wanted to celebrate a little longer but he turned back to investigate what he did, trying to think back at how he moved the daggers, and how he positioned them, there were a surprising amount of factors in that working attack, he couldn¡¯t explain them all... which sounded like part of the problem.


    Almost as if the universe wanted to emphasise Janik¡¯s point, the next few attacks failed to produce the same result, causing Sam¡¯s expression to sour even more. Janik¡¯s point hit harder now... This caused Sam to take extra care in how he positioned, moved and attacked with his daggers each subsequent attack.


    It took many more attacks before he managed to do it again. This time he didn¡¯t react like he did before but rather he heavily analyzed what he did. He had thoughts on what he did before, during and after the attack, considering it all he needed to find out what the main issue was... it was incredibly simple, or rather the reason why he struggled and how to compensate, making it kind of dumb.


    To test his theory he did the attack three more times, this time all three landed the attack as planned, the numbers stacking before the Defence rating was calculated.


    ¡°Well done!¡± Janik exclaimed, having been paying attention for a while, it seemed. ¡°What was your trick?¡±


    ¡°I struggle with timing and distance... since I attack from over here. I can... feel... Things with my hands but while attacking this is a problem, so... I placed a hand on the target...¡± Sam replied sounding almost embarrassed.


    ¡°So... you kind of just... felt the distance better?¡±


    ¡°Yes, rather than relying on my eyes to time, I felt the target¡¯s distance which let me time it better.¡± Sam smiled back, finally feeling confident about his idea.


    ¡°That¡¯s a great idea!¡± Janik pumped his fist in the air.


    Dia looked at them confused and slowly mimicked the movement as if it was going to unlock something in her. It didn¡¯t, which made her more confused.


    ¡°Now-¡± Janik continued as his glee turned to a challenging expression. ¡°-Try again from other angles!¡±


    Sam chuckled, this challenge felt both impossible and easy at the same time... As he turned to do just that, placing a Psyhand on the target before landing a hit, he found that it was indeed not as easy as he hoped. The attack failed to sum before the Defense kicked in, after a few tries from ¡®this angle¡¯, he managed to make it land a few times, but he was then challenged to do it from another angle, then another, and so it went for a while. Janik almost sounded like he was running it for Sam, but rather he realised that this was more realistic, you don¡¯t always get the chance to do it as you want. And from Janik¡¯s earlier explanation, he needed to make it several times before he unlocked it, so this felt like a more realistic training to get it to unlock faster.


    It took a few hours of this, every time he got used to an angle, Janik forced him to change it, and after a while of this Sam started doing that on his own, which let Janik sit back down with Dia and work on her English. It seemed like Janik also picked up a few words at the same time, which was somewhat amusing to Sam but as it messed with his focus, he had to stop paying attention to them and focus on the task at hand.


    [ Passive Utility Skill Unlocked: Clustered Strike ]


    ¡°YES!¡± Sam again flung both his fists into the air, breaking the concentration of Dia, forcing her to fail her word attempt.


    They turned to Sam who met their looks with a happy expression. ¡°It finally unlocked!¡±


    This time Janik joined in celebration with a happy whoop, instead of bringing him down. ¡°Congratulations!¡±


    Sam felt amazing, for several reasons.


    [ Passive Utility Skill: Clustered Strike


    All attacks that land on a single target at the same time, will count as one attack before considering Defence. ]


    ¡°I think mine is named different than yours, but it works the same.¡± Sam explained through his glee.


    ¡°That¡¯s great! Now, give it a go, see how it works.¡± Janik commented, seeming to have a strange expression behind his genuine happiness.


    Turning back around, Sam did as requested, he attacked with all four daggers on the target and... it felt a bit strange. Almost as if someone held your wrists and either helped to drag them faster, or slow them down by resisting before letting go it felt like an external force helped him time things. Unless he delayed one or more of the daggers over a certain point, they were auto-timed to hit at the same time and stack their damage. It took some time getting used to as it felt so unnatural, which made Sam believe this was the reason behind Janik¡¯s expression.


    ¡°Weird, isn¡¯t it.¡± Janik added with an almost ¡®told you so¡¯ tone. ¡°It took me a while to get used to it as well, so I recommend you get used to it before we go out.... And since it¡¯s late... why don¡¯t we have a late dinner and call it for today?¡±


    Sam agreed to his suggestion, checking the time it was already nearing evening, and though using the Psyhands didn¡¯t wear him out, he was still hungry from just being here.


    Janik looked at Dia and nudged her towards Sam with a wide smile, nodding almost as if giving her permission to do something.


    She stepped closer and looked back and forth hesitantly. ¡°Sa...mm... Sam... Good... job?¡± It ended in a very uncertain and questioning tone, but given the situation, it was clear this was something Janik had managed to teach her when Sam was focused on his own thing.


    ¡°Yes!¡± Janik confirmed happily to her as she looked at him for confirmation if she had done it right. Which sent her into a wide smile towards Sam. ¡°Sa! Sa shirin!¡± She shouted as she lowered her ears to make room.


    Sam hadn¡¯t expected that she had taken to getting the simple head pat that much, but she seemed to want that as a reward, and he couldn¡¯t exactly say no. Manifesting a Psyhand he gave her the head pat she wanted, she leant heavily into the invisible force as he gave her a prolonged pat.


    Janik gave them a moment to do their thing, letting Dia get her energy out as she had been sitting around for hours, staring at a phone, learning English. So this was probably a good thing for her.


    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    They left the training room, and TAC, for a local food place. The first two refused their entry due to Dia, they were fine with Elara but Dia made this somewhat problematic. Although Sam was a bit annoyed at this he also understood it, she was a Beastfolk, something that most looked at like a monster, so trying to relax and eat with one in the room might not always work... But in the end, a mainstream burger place allowed her entry as long as they stood responsible for it, which was fine.


    Like before, she ate like the animal she halfway was, requiring her face to be cleaned afterwards. Although she seemed to hate the use of napkins, wanting to lick her hand and rub it away instead, it ended up being a compromise which let her end up relatively clean for now. Sam expected her to handle that before they got back, and he could always just clean her properly then.


    The rest of the evening disappeared in a blur, Janik, like the proud parent he was had plenty of things to brag about, though it seemed he kept most of it to the kids that Sam knew at least a little about, so most were surrounding Ethan and Grace, the Player and Elara¡¯s friend. But they also spent some time planning the next day, which was simple enough; go to the second Floor and try out the first Dungeon there.


    Later that night, they again split up for the next day. Elara requested to go with Janik to visit Grace, something Sam was more than happy to have happen. The fact that she had wants and wishes was still something he preferred. And the rest of the evening was much like the last one, Dia learning more language on his phone as she sat as against him as she could, though as he was preparing the app for her to continue she was again adamant of grooming him. It wasn¡¯t that he disliked the attention, it just still felt weird having his face, hair and limbs cleaned through licking. He tried to explain that he could just wash himself but she became very insistent. He understood that it was important to her, letting her have her way with at least some of it. She also seemed to still have a weird relationship with clothing, at least weird in Sam¡¯s eyes with his Earthern view on things. Again she commented ¡®Kara¡¯ after having taken her armour and clothing off, something he was still unsure what meant.


    The evening mostly went for her to learn words, as soon as she learned something that could be found in the apartment like a cup, glass or something like that, she became very interested in the object, wanting to bet several of them and use the words as soon as she got confirmation that she said it well enough. Sam didn¡¯t have a problem with this, it was oddly adorable in a way while it solidified the words in her mind.


    Since she seemed to be picking up words and simple things very fast, he was looking forward to when she learned enough to have a conversation. That said, she didn¡¯t ignore the opportunity to teach Sam her own words for things, when she learned enough words to point and explain things in English, with the app¡¯s aid, she also used that to explain what certain words meant. Since she was also now somewhat used to seeing images and things on the phone, searching on the internet for images of things allowed Sam to do the multiple-of-same-thing comparison he had used before.


    Spending their time together they eventually went to sleep, and like before, waking up well after normal time, still enjoying the option to largely ¡®set the time¡¯ in his own life was something he tried to not take for granted. It was also very nice just waking up with Dia wrapped around him, though a bit warm with all her fur and body heat.


    He couldn¡¯t get out of bed without waking her and trying to remain still also seemed to wake her up. Might be due to her earlier life but she didn¡¯t seem like a heavy sleeper. That said, it didn¡¯t seem too negative as she looked happy, smiled widely with her half-sleeping expression and hugged him tighter before he managed to get loose.


    The morning procedure went as normal, having read and sent messages to Janik they agreed to meet up in the mess hall for breakfast before setting off. Sam decided to get some potions before they left but that could wait until after getting some food.


    ¡°You hungry?¡± Sam asked Dia in plain English, these were words he knew she had been using in the app to learn, so it was both a question and a natural test.


    She pondered for a few long seconds, seemingly analysing the words before replying with a Yip. A second later she seemed to realize what was going on and decided to answer in English as well. ¡°Y... Yes... I... Hungry!¡±


    Though she didn¡¯t have a proper full-sentence structure, it was entirely understandable and not bad for someone who had been learning the language passively for a few days. She looked happy at being able to understand even this simple question.


    ¡°Good, then let¡¯s go eat.¡± Sam smiled back at her. She used a few more seconds to process this longer sentence before it seemed to click in her mind, with a wide smile she got dressed and met Sam at the door.


    Sam couldn¡¯t help himself from feeling proud of his companion, she was learning the language surprisingly fast and though her replies were simple, they were understandable. With some more nurturing she should become pretty good.


    This time she didn¡¯t seem too sceptical about the elevator either, and as Sam considered it, she was getting used to light switches, the fridge and other modern luxuries as well. Based on her reaction when they came back to Earth yesterday, she still wasn¡¯t happy about walking outside, massive concrete buildings and weird hard ground still seemed weird to her. But she was coming around.


    ¡°Jaik!¡± Dia exclaimed as she saw Janik sitting at a table, already eating.


    ¡°Almost. JaNik, Janik.¡± Sam put pressure on the letter she missed before pronouncing it correctly.


    ¡°Ja... N.. Nik... Ja-nik... Janik?¡± She looked at Sam with a questioning expression, seemingly confirming if she did it right or not.


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s correct!¡± Sam smiled back, it wasn¡¯t perfect and a bit off in certain vowels, but it was plenty good enough.


    Dia¡¯s face lit up as she ran over to Janik, saying his name as she got in conversation range. Janik nodded sagely as she seemed to get it right before greeting her in turn. This just lit her face up even more.


    As they got in range, Elara slithered across the table, reaching up for Sam. As he gave her a hand to climb onto she slithered up to her place draped across his shoulders.


    Janik was about done eating, and by the time Dia and Sam returned with their own, he had completed his.


    ¡°I think it¡¯s about time we hit the second Floor.¡± Janik started the discussion as the others were eating.


    Sam nodded as he ate, he had opted to get Dia some finger food as she wasn¡¯t used to utensils just yet, might as well make it easier for her to eat until she does.


    ¡°According to the guide, there is an entry-level Dungeon not far from the landing area, there¡¯s a village near it like on the first Floor, so we can get some pointers there if we need them.¡±


    Nodding again, Sam opted to not reply with his mouth full of food.


    ¡°They are around level 20, so the same as the last Dungeon on the first Floor, but the difference here is their damage output and that some of them have a Defence rating, which is why I wanted you to learn the thing before we went there. And these fuckers have a ton of health, especially the boss.¡± Janik was showing some images on his phone which was lying flat on the table as he explained.


    The images were mainly of what looked like bat-beastfolk, so more flyers, which made a lot of sense in the mountain region, but also a few simple-looking golem creatures. The golems were made up of large rocks stacked on each other to vaguely resemble a humanoid shape. When referring to massive health he was pointing at a Golem.


    ¡°But, the boon is that the XP values jump dramatically, as we touched on. One of these fuckers will give us around 40k.¡±


    This caused Sam to almost choke on his food, coughing twice before he managed to get control over himself. ¡°40k? That¡¯s, what... a hundred times more than the ravens?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s nothing, the boss gives you 100k.¡± Janik added with a smile to Sam¡¯s bewilderment.


    However, the more Sam thought about it, the more it made sense. There was already a cap in place to stop lower levels from going there, or at least from benefitting compared to the danger, this was some kind of balancing act to make things scale ¡®similarly¡¯. If that were true then everything should just scale out of control, but you would struggle near the end, but once you got through it you¡¯ll get easier mode for a while.


    All of this was surprisingly close to many games Sam had played when he was younger.


    It didn¡¯t take long after this for Dia and Sam to finish their food, after which they set off. They passed by the computers connected to the shop and got themselves some potions, Sam ended up with six of the 50% healing ones, and Janik got himself a few as well before they headed for the Tower.


    ¡°So, when you get in the influence it¡¯ll ask you if you want to enter. From what I read, now that you¡¯re qualified you should get an option for the second Floor.¡± Janik explained as he looked at his phone, currently reading about this very topic.


    This made sense, the System was a part of their mind, after all, and its rules and internal... things seemed to just know what it needed to know.


    Dia kept close as soon as they left TAC, looking at the tall concrete buildings with a certain uncertainty, her ears flat against her head and her tails close to her legs. Elara didn¡¯t seem to care and just rested around his neck.


    Getting within the influence the familiar window popped up, but now with an extra option.


    [ Please select a destination.


    Floor 1


    Floor 2 ]


    He chose the second floor, accepted the group option, and as the white light enveloped him he saw a window briefly open.


    [ Transporting to #%&¡±¡±#/!}¡ì ]

 Ch.056 - The -- explanation

    As the white light faded, Sam found himself in what could best be described as a white void. There was nothing, just a bright white space. Looking at his hands, and his body, he could see fine so it wasn¡¯t in his head or his eyes, but rather it seemed and felt like he was in what he guessed zero-gravity was like.


    There was nothing to see, nothing to hear and nothing to feel. The temperature was nice, and the air was clean but there was nothing outside of this, a surprisingly terrifying white void.


    From nothing, a small black spot formed, there was no way to tell the distance to it, no point of reference, but it grew outwards, then upwards into the vaguest of humanoid shapes. It had a colour much like a shadow, just dimming the ¡®light¡¯ in the area it covered, but not having any depth or any detail of its own. Still not being able to tell the distance made a weird feeling of not being able to tell how large it was, it could be man-sized and just a few steps away, or it could be towering over building and being quite the distance away. It started moving, it tilted its head down towards Sam, still standing upright in this void it had a strange presence. Sam saw no eyes, heard no breathing, saw nothing besides the vaguest of shadows, but he felt it stare at him, staring through him.


    This sent a powerful shiver down his spine, he felt like he wanted to run, to get away from this. Fight or flight kicked in, he tried to hit it with his Psyhands, to reach it, but nothing made it there. Even by expanding his area and using only one hand, he couldn¡¯t reach it. It was either out of reach or just something he couldn¡¯t touch.


    Opening his mouth to speak, Sam closed it again without a sound, he wanted to run, but couldn¡¯t move, like in zero gravity there was nothing for him to push against. He moved all his Psyhands around him, trying to get hold of anything to pull or push against, but couldn¡¯t feel anything.


    ¡°Do not -- Afraid.¡± The being spoke in a loud and thundering voice, it came from everywhere at once, feeling like there were speakers all around Sam connected to the same microphone, turned up just barely enough to make it uncomfortable in volume. One word sounded almost broken, like reality glitched, like someone wiggled a loose cable while using the attached microphone. The volume didn¡¯t increase but it sounded like a horrible static glitching noise. At the same time, the shadow almost vibrated and tore up before mending itself, like reality was glitching or having rendering errors in real time.


    ¡°Who.... What are you ?¡± Sam managed to force out, he heard his voice break as he did so, feeling utterly helpless and on some fundamental instinctual level knowing almost for a fact that this being could just casually wave in his direction and kill him.


    ¡°I am -- friend, do -- fear. I mean -- no harm.¡± The booming voice replied without any movement from the shadow, almost like it wasn¡¯t doing the talking and was just... there, the only hints that it was doing the speaking were the matching timing of the glitching of its voice and shadowy form. Every few words glitched and crackled out, forcing Sam to understand through context.


    ¡°Where... is this... what do you want?¡± Sam hesitantly asked.


    ¡°I am #%!)%¡ì¡± The creature seemed to try to say its name, or what it was, and for all Sam knew it might even be its name, but compared to before, as it spoke its name or what it was, there was a horrid noise, like whatever vocal cords it had tried to tear itself apart as it pronounced it, whatever it was, Sam wasn¡¯t meant, or couldn¡¯t hear it properly.


    ¡°-- what you -- an Entity.¡± It added to the end of its explanation. And this made things fall into place a little bit.


    ¡°-- need help. Your help. -- Towers aren¡¯t what -- think, -- are being -- advantage of.¡± The Entity continued explaining. Though some of the words kept glitching out, Sam felt that the important ones were still present.


    ¡°What do you mean? We don¡¯t even know what the towers are, how can they be something else than we think?¡± Sam felt almost insulted, though there might be people who know what they are, if that were true they weren¡¯t sharing.


    The Entity finally moved. An arm lifted out from the vague shape, its hand being almost like a mitten without any defined fingers, it stopped and reached out to its side before an almost glass-like sphere grew from nothing over the hand into one comparable to a basketball in its hand. It started displaying images like it was a spherical TV displaying a premade recording.


    ¡°-- are killed, their -- is absorbed. It fuels --. Your -- is entertainment. Anything -- be given, anything can -- removed.¡± It explained things as the video looked like Players fighting, almost as if someone was on-site and recording it, but there was something extra.


    Each person who died had translucent smoke leave their body, every person who was attacked and was hurt had a much smaller puff of smoke left, both of which were suddenly jerked up into the sky and disappeared suddenly as if exiting through the ceiling.


    Sam had consumed enough media to at least assume he got the contextual information of what this smoke could be, but he wasn¡¯t entirely sure.


    ¡°You¡¯re... harvesting us?¡± His tone was insulted.


    ¡°Yes.¡± The entity replied short and harshly.


    ¡°The cost of this power is... you¡¯re farming us?¡± Sam didn¡¯t sound as hesitant, more commanding in search of answers.


    ¡°Yes.¡± Again the Entity answered simply.


    Sam pondered this for a moment. Though he had only known this fact for a few seconds, it was enough for him to at least get over the initial shock. Like many before him, there was no logic as to why the towers gave them these powers, but this made sense. If there are massively powerful entities capable of making this, capable of giving these powers...


    ¡°-- was not supposed -- -- like this. It -- to be -- choice. But -- others did -- care.¡± The Entity continued explaining in its broken manner. The video it displayed seemed to glitch out horribly as it showed nothing related to the other Entities, but it continued explaining.


    Sam gathered from all of this, adding questions to confirm, that these Entities, immensely powerful beings, had gifted these powers to Humans. It was meant to be voluntary, explaining things to them before it was activated. But the Entities in control didn¡¯t care, they wanted the life force, they wanted the entertainment. They liked to see lesser creatures struggle, so the Towers and the System were ¡®gifted¡¯ to Humanity.


    Considering the cost, and knowing how humans worked, hell; knowing how he worked, most people would still accept it. But it was the lack of control through lacking information that got him. Once someone accepts being a Player, the control of their life passes into the System, which influences them to continue fighting and continue climbing, never controlling directly but hinting and making it easier to bring out their deeper desires. To fight the monsters, struggle against the all-powerful System, especially the ones inclined to fight against each other. Those in power abuse those without, and this was extremely entertaining to the Entities. The perpetual torture for a collective ¡®puff of energy¡¯ to be harvested was horrible, but at the same time; if the pain happened anyway wasn¡¯t it better that it served a purpose?


    The main thing he caught here was that the Entities are doing this for entertainment, to create drama and feed on the energy from it. This included the things happening on Earth.


    There was also a subgroup of Entities that didn¡¯t think this was right, and who wanted to give Humans a choice, to explain things before they went into this. The problem is that these Entities don¡¯t have any control over the System, so they can¡¯t do anything, and their internal struggle on the topic gets them nowhere.


    One important detail was that the power given to Players was real, it wasn¡¯t just some illusion or something that could be randomly taken away, this seemed to be a core concept of the System. This also explained why the powers worked on Earth, outside of the Towers¡¯ influence, not to mention the tech created from things found within the tower which was now used in satellites and on Earth far from the Towers, meaning that even though it was gifted or ¡®from the Tower¡¯, it was still a real, tangible thing.


    ¡°So, the monster sent to my neighbourhood on Earth, was all for the sick entertainment of the Entities in control?¡± Sam¡¯s tone darkened, he felt he already knew the answer, but he still felt like he needed to hear it.


    ¡°Yes.¡± There was no emotion nor any apologetic tone in its voice.


    ¡°And what about Dia, my companion, she was ¡®sent¡¯ there to create more interesting content?¡± His voice flared into anger at the thought of this.


    It had started as an intrigue and was indeed interesting, but though their time had been short so far, he had developed honest feelings for her in his way.


    ¡°Yes. -- no.¡± There was still no emotion in its voice, but there was a hesitation. ¡°-- in what -- call Dungeons, do -- have --. But -- outside has -- intelligence.¡±


    This was harder to understand due to the lack of words and tone, but adding what he had seen before in monsters inside Dungeons vs outside, meant that the ones outside could be actual living beings but the ones inside were just... monsters in a dungeon.


    ¡°So, the creatures in Dungeons are just... fake or halfway mindless for the Dungeon process, but the ones outside are living, breathing, sapient and intelligent creatures?¡± Sam felt like he had to add some extra details mostly for his own sake.


    ¡°Yes.¡± As Sam expected, the Entities¡¯ response was short and simple.


    However, he had to admit this made his situation both better and worse. On one hand, the monsters he had been slaughtering in Dungeons didn¡¯t have a proper mind, they were just NPC¡¯s as it were. On the other hand, it made Dia properly real, which was positive, but the negative side effect of this was that she was still ¡®of the System¡¯ and could be taken away from him.


    ¡°-- Ascendant.¡± It began, gaining Sam¡¯s focus as it was the first time someone besides himself brought up the subject. ¡°-- loophole. Outside -- control. Class -- free will.¡±


    ¡°So... the System can¡¯t control Ascendants?¡± Sam wondered about this one. Given the fucked up shit it sent him through earlier, the flesh Dungeon and the Island... not to mention the ¡®rental¡¯ bullshit.


    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    ¡°No... other -- around. System can -- Ascendants, but Ascendants -- control the System.¡± It sounded hesitant... somehow, at the end. ¡°Slightly.¡±


    ¡°So... the System can still control us, but we... can control it back?¡± Sam¡¯s eyes widened, if this was true it was nothing short of amazing.


    ¡°Slightly.¡± The Entity added with force.


    They continued conversing on the subject, Sam had to ask a lot of questions to make sure he covered the missing words, but in the end, he pieced together that the System controls as the Entities wanted. Be that attacking with monsters and luring Players ahead with the promise of riches and power, or affecting them indirectly by letting them get used to or gain things, only to have that ripped away later. This latter part hit Sam differently, imagining Dia right away.


    The important details here were the Ascendants, they were a technical loophole, like an elevated user of sorts. If Sam learned to properly harness this, he could ¡®slightly¡¯ affect the System in return.


    ¡°So... what does all this mean?¡± Sam finally asked. Parts of him liked the idea of the extra power... once he figured out how to use it, but he wondered what the motivation was behind everything.


    ¡°Ascendant -- hard to --. Easier -- you to -- around unseen -- them.¡±


    ¡°The Ascendant thing makes me harder to... see? I¡¯m harder to film or something?¡± Continuing the fucked up reality show comparison, the Entity seemed to know what this was so they might as well use the analogy.


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    Sam felt he had a clear motivation to fight this system, he didn¡¯t want it gone... He liked the power and he wanted to keep Dia, but he still wondered what the point of telling him was.


    ¡°What do you want me to do, why do you want me to fight? Why are you even telling me this? If I stop this, won¡¯t that stop feeding you?¡± He struggled to find the logic, ending up with a group of questions instead.


    ¡°Stopping -- -- only -- management. -- will allow -- to take control. -- it better.¡±


    ¡°So, if we somehow stop this... the current management will lose, or be demoted or something. And someone else can take over to make it better?¡± Sam did like the thought of this, but what if someone worse came into control?


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°What do I get if I manage to do this, then?¡± Sam wanted to know just what would happen to him if he managed to struggle through all this.


    ¡°If -- succeed. -- gain -- admin. -- part of -- changes.¡± The voice was still uncomfortable to hear, but at least Sam had somewhat gotten used to it.


    ¡°So... I get proper input to what changes I want to be done to the System, and... the Entities will listen?¡± This sounded too good to be true.


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    Sam expected a longer answer or something like a perhaps or a wildcard, but a straight-up yes wasn¡¯t on the list of his expectations.


    The Entity leant forward, its arm dismissing the sphere as it returned to the blob of its main body. As it came closer to Sam, it covered more and more of his vision until he could barely see any light except in the corner of his eyes. It came closer with an uncomfortable pressure as if it was going to eat him or squash him as a bug. The sheer size of it was staggering.


    ¡°Ascendant, fight the --. Climb. -- in power. Abuse the --.¡± The Entity¡¯s voice sounded almost energetic like it spoke about something it had a passion or burned for.


    ¡°Tear those fuckers a new asshole and show them how it feels to be on the receiving end for once.¡±


    At the exact moment that Sam realised that the Entity managed to speak a full, unbroken sentence, he blinked and found himself alone in the white void. Looking around he was back to not seeing anything besides himself, nothing in reach or anything he could hear or see. This only lasted for a few long seconds before he felt the familiar warmth of the normal transporting light moving him.


    Opening his eyes he found himself standing in a clearing in a mountain path, as far as the eye could see in any direction there were just more mountains and valleys, surprisingly clear weather with localized rainclouds in the distance. Somewhat close to where he had landed was a village halfway dug into the mountainside, with more caves than houses, a large bonfire outside almost as if it was used for both warmth and as a location signal. The air was very crisp and almost uncomfortably biting.


    It didn¡¯t take more than a few seconds before Sam was blindsided as Dia shouted his name just before she landed on him, riding him to the ground in a tackle. Her claws almost dug into him as she wrapped herself around him in an almost panic. She went into a long sentence of words he couldn¡¯t understand as her voice broke, almost to the point of sounding like she was tearing up.


    ¡°The fuck is going on?!¡± Sam shouted in surprise after he came to his senses once he hit the hard stone ground.


    ¡°Dude, where the fuck were you?¡± Janik¡¯s voice asked from behind Sam, an angle he couldn¡¯t look in due to being locked down on the ground by Dia.


    ¡°What do you mean? I was gone for ten minutes, tops... right?¡± Stating how long it felt for him, he remembered through voicing the sentence the time dilation the last time he was gone, turning it into a question instead.


    ¡°Dude, you were gone for hours...¡± Janik had walked into Sam¡¯s field of view, letting him see the honest worry on his face. Elara hung slung around his neck and shared his expression.


    ¡°What?¡± Sam was confused, he didn¡¯t feel like Janik was bullshitting, adding Dia¡¯s reaction this felt entirely real. But hours? It felt like 10... perhaps 15-20 minutes at the very most if he lost track of time.


    ¡°When she¡¯s done with you, you have some explaining to do.¡± It didn¡¯t sound like a question or request, it sounded like an order.


    Sam didn¡¯t have any plans to keep this to himself, but he could understand their worry. The last time he disappeared he was gone for much longer, and for Dia, though they only met a few days ago in the grand scheme of things, this was the first time they were apart. Given how obsessive she seemed to be, she might have taken this hard.


    Giving Dia the time she needed to calm down, even though he had to coax her a bit to have her let go, she kept holding onto him as if he was about to disappear at any given time. Every time he tried to have her calmly let go she objected angrily. Sam didn¡¯t mind enough to cause a problem out of it, she was just holding onto his arm, after all.


    ¡°Well? Explain yourself.¡± Janik commanded shortly after they got out of the landing area.


    Sam started explaining, but in the middle of a sentence he saw both Dia and Janik look at him with extremely worried and surprised eyes.


    ¡°The fuck was that?¡± Janik asked with uncertainty in his voice, as if Sam just blurted out something racist in the wrong company.


    ¡°What do you mean, I know it feels out there, but it¡¯s true. The Entities are controlling the system harvesting us for life force.¡± Sam repeated, but as he said it he could see their worry deepen.


    ¡°You... didn¡¯t do that on purpose?¡± Janik asked.


    ¡°Do what? You want to hear this or not?¡± Sam sounded a bit annoyed, they could at least wait until he was done before they started with this.


    ¡°No... I do... But... you keep making the most horrible noise... Here...¡± Janik¡¯s expression changed like he realised something. He brought up his phone and was taking a video or images of Sam.


    ¡°Say that again.¡±


    Sam was hesitant, but he understood that there was something weird. He repeated the statement only to see Dia¡¯s worry deepen considerably.


    ¡°That¡¯s good-¡± Janik commented as he walked over to Sam, starting the video and turning the phone around.


    Sam saw himself, speaking and explaining, everything was fine and normal. Janik had just filmed him saying a seemingly random sentence.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with it?¡±


    Janik looked at Sam for a few seconds. ¡°That¡¯s weird... I mean... In the video, you say that ¡®it sounds weird but¡¯-¡± After quoting that part, Janik proceeded to make crackling and weird guttural groaning sounds.


    ¡°I... don¡¯t see that at all, I just see me repeating what I said... Wait, hold on.¡± Sam started realizing what this could be. The System was probably somewhat censoring him. ¡°You can¡¯t hear it if I say; Eentities are controlling the system?¡±


    Janik looked at him like he was spewing enough nonsense to be institutionalised. ¡°No... it¡¯s like you¡¯re just making random and horrible noises.¡±


    Dia pulled at his arm, mostly saying things in her language he hadn¡¯t learned yet, but he understood the word ¡®stop¡¯.


    ¡°Hmm... Seems I might be censored... Ok, let¡¯s try this in a different way... I¡¯m going to try and... abstract this... let me know if I make those weird sounds and I¡¯ll change my wording...¡±


    Sam pondered for a few moments at how to word this, but he had a few ideas.


    ¡°Imagine a computer game, with every player streaming...¡±

 Ch.057 - Censored

    The explanation took quite some time, mainly due to the System censoring him. He had to swap words, using gaming, let¡¯s plays and reality shows as analogies... it was somewhat spot on but he had to abstract down things a ton even using other words or dumb metaphorical comparisons to get through it. The System even censored writing, if he typed the words on his phone, he could see them fine but Janik saw them as random symbols not mean anything. Even trying to spell them out, slowly and adding a ¡®code¡¯ in the sense of skipping ¡®this letter¡¯ or numbers didn¡¯t work as the System seemed to know what he was doing. But for some reason, it allowed the abstracting or bullshit explanation, at least some of it. A few things never allowed themselves to be translated.


    But after an hour of attempted explaining and being violently shaken by Dia every time he made weird sounds, he felt like he had completed the explanation.


    ¡°That... that¡¯s the weirdest explanation I have heard... but... I suppose it makes kind of sense.¡± Janik explained as he mused on the explanation. ¡°It also explains the things you¡¯ve been through, but I don¡¯t get why you were sent to these places. And how these administrators control the System to-¡±


    As Janik got to that point in his summary, Dia looked at him with a similar worry. ¡°Jan-ik!¡± She briefly let go of Sam¡¯s arm to shake Janik instead, repeating ¡°Ila!¡±, her language for Stop.


    ¡°Ok... I guess it means that I¡¯m also censored...¡± Janik chuckled through the shaking.


    ¡°I could hear you fine...¡± Sam commented a bit uncertainly. He wasn¡¯t worried; he understood that this was probably something like a chat filter. This topic was heavily moderated, and the only reason he wasn¡¯t flagged or attacked might be the Ascendant thing keeping him relatively safe.


    ¡±Though you might want to keep that to yourself, it mentioned that I¡¯m safe due to my haxx, but I don¡¯t know if you are...¡± The word haxx is a horrible way to explain it, but though he had used the word Ascendant before, it was censored in this context, so it was one of the workaround words he used.


    ¡°Yeah... yeah...¡± Janik commented. ¡°I¡¯ll keep it to myself, not interested in getting accidented, so...¡±


    Janik let out a deep sigh and changed the subject ever so slightly. ¡°So, what do you intend to do with all of this?¡±


    ¡°Those fuckers sent that monster... thing... to my neighbourhood, fucked up my family, friends, my life. Threatening to fuck with Dia. What do you think?¡± Sam¡¯s tone soured dramatically as he was forced to remember all of that.


    ¡°You¡¯re going to fight it?¡± Janik asked rhetorically.


    ¡°What do you think?! Off course I¡¯m going to fucking fight it, I¡¯m going to abuse everything I can get my hands on, work my way to the top and turn those fuckers inside out.¡± Sam knew this was a colourful use of words that would probably be a somewhat empty threat, but it still illustrated his goal. Initially, he was in this for luxury, to live and thrive, now this turned to revenge, not just for things done in the past, but for the passive and indirect threat to those he cares for. It ignited something deep in him.


    He used to have a happy life, he was close with his family and friends, school life and worrying about what kind of job he wanted in the future for the sake of education. But still being young enough to not properly worry about everything, in hindsight it was great having those worries. Back then everyone thought that the monster had just somehow broken containment or something, gotten out of the Tower in some weird way. But knowing what he did now... This felt more like the Entities in control doing an experiment, or just creating drama for their entertainment or just to keep ¡®the humans on edge¡¯.


    The more he thought about it, the more he grew to hate them. Even more than the forced events or taking over his body, this was just...


    ¡°I thought as much.¡± Janik chuckled.


    Sam wanted to react to the chuckle, it metaphorically slapped his anger in the face, but he decided to hold back. It was perhaps a realistic way to respond, but he was annoyed, so everything had a sour taste. From going through all this... kind of twice as he tried to explain everything to Janik, he was forced to remember the events of his past, the image of the six-eyed massive lizard-like creature tearing through the walls.


    ¡°Right now I just want to fight something...¡± Sam felt a powerful aggression he hadn¡¯t felt in quite some time... or perhaps this was the feeling of vengeance? In either case, he felt like punching something just to vent his energy somewhere, but he didn¡¯t exactly want to take it out on anyone around him just now.


    Janik let out a strangely nervous laugh, but with an honest tone mixed in, to Dia¡¯s confusement as they continued down the path, leading away from the little village. Sam vaguely remembered that they could ask there for directions if needed, but since Janik was leading them, he probably knew where to go.


    Mellowing out ever so slightly as he got time to process and calm down, Sam started thinking about other things than direct anger. The Entity confirmed and shared a lot of disturbing things, but Sam also realised that he couldn¡¯t just take it all at face value. Like anyone, it could be lying for its gain, a healthy dose of paranoia was probably not a bad idea, but a lot of things started making surprising sense if one assumed that everything it said was true. The Ascendant thing was getting more interesting, if that was true he needed to find a way to harness that elevated power somehow...


    ¡°We¡¯re here.¡± Janik¡¯s voice broke Sam out of his train of thought.


    Looking up from his stare into the ground in front of them, he could see that they had walked into a small valley which terminated at a cave entrance. The cave didn¡¯t look too deep but there was a familiar shimmering field in front of the opening.


    Janik was staring at his phone, scrolling up and down before looking satisfied and putting it in his pocket.


    ¡°This whole thing is going to be inside a cave, but it¡¯ll be high enough in rooms for the bats to fly, we can probably bottleneck them if needed.¡± He looked surprisingly excited.


    Sam didn¡¯t comment, he was more focused on the upcoming fights. Though he might have special perks as far as the Player System went, he could still die like anyone else, something he wasn¡¯t entirely keen on.


    ¡°We good to enter?¡± Janik turned around and looked at the others.


    Sam nodded, Dia seemed to somewhat know what was going on and looked ready as well.


    Janik smiled and walked backwards a few steps before disappearing in a white light.


    Sam stepped into the area as well and accepted the familiar popup, the white light moved him like normal and he was somewhat happy to see that when he landed the group was there as well. Parts of him were halfway expecting to be pulled somewhere weird.


    A quick look around confirmed that, as expected, they were in a cave. It was poorly lit up with only one exit. The stone itself looked unworked and looked like a natural formation rather than one dug out by someone. They were in a rough dome-shaped room with one exit leading into a dark hallway. The air was surprisingly clean even though it had a dampness to it.


    Everyone ended up looking at each other after having a look around the room they landed in. Janik shrugged and was the first to say something.


    ¡°I suppose we move on?¡± As he commented he took a small flashlight out of his pocket, and a strap out of another pocket, fastening them together he placed it on his forehead for a simple headlight.


    Sam realised he didn¡¯t get a new flashlight after losing the older one he borrowed from Janik, on the Island. But it would have to do for now, he could feel around to a certain degree as long as he didn¡¯t need the hands for something else.


    As they walked towards the hallway, a familiar window popped up.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Large Golem: 0/1


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters: 0/20


    Rewards:


    500 000 xp


    1x Random mid-level crafting material


    Chance (2%): High D-tier weapon or armour.


    Bonus rewards for optional step:


    500 000 xp


    Random Box - X. ]


    It was simple, same format as the others and had a low percentage of getting some decent gear. However, the massive difference was the XP rewards.


    ¡°Dude...¡± Sam let out as he saw the massive bump in numbers. ¡°If we clear this properly, a million XP... Four or five runs of this will level me again...¡±


    He wasn¡¯t complaining, he was just surprised. But based on what was said or read earlier, it did seem that the system was giving you a boost at the start of a new Floor, almost like it wanted you to get excited again after perhaps struggling on the last Floor. Knowing what he now knew about the System as a whole, it made a lot of sense that it was set up like this, the metaphorical carrot and such.


    ¡°Yeah, think how I feel!¡± Janik replied with a huge grin, barely lit up by the flashlight sending its rays forward.


    Sam understood his feeling, he was a bit lower level than Sam and given how much time it took to level normally, not counting PvP, and considering that Janik was a bit more safety-focused in how he had been doing this so far... His excitement made a lot of sense.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.¡°Well, I suppose we¡¯ll see how this goes, then. Perhaps you can even get yourself a new weapon~¡± Sam ended his statement in a playful tone as he casually, but very obviously, wielded the Moonblade.


    Janik¡¯s mild annoyance amused Sam.


    ¡°Aaaanyway, let¡¯s go on. Though the Guide says this should be relatively straightforward, it is the starter Dungeon on this Floor, after all, I still don¡¯t want to get fucked up on my first day here.¡± He looked ahead with both his swords in hand, having the only active light source he directed it properly.


    Sam nodded in agreement, though he didn¡¯t consider that Janik didn¡¯t see him at first, but after a few seconds of nothing happening, he repeated his agreement vocally. ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s go.¡±


    Walking down the hallways felt surprisingly familiar, much like the starter Dungeons in the city, it was simple to navigate, and it didn¡¯t take long before they came to a large open cave. Before they came to the mouth of it there were sounds of rock dragging against rock, as well as a few high-frequency chirps.


    Janik turned off his flashlight before they turned the last corner and well before they entered the mouth of the cave, but even before they got there they could hear aggressive flapping and chirping. It wasn¡¯t hard to guess that they already knew the group had arrived.


    Turning the flashlight back on, Janik took a stance in front of the other two, looking ready to do whatever he needed to. As the powerful LED cast rays into the large room, there was a collection of pained shrieks.


    The room was pretty large, like a basketball field, just roughly dome-shaped. The golems looked to be a little bit larger than strong men but otherwise looked like rocks stacked on top of each other. The Batfolk looked much smaller than he expected, standing upright next to him they¡¯d probably reach his stomach, rather lanky bodies with a wing membrane reaching from their weird little bat-hands down the arm, along their side down to their feet. The odd humanoid shape was the main thing that made them look weirdly different from normal bats. A good thing to keep them away was that they hated the bright light of the flashlight, seemingly shrieking angrily at it from afar.


    The golems didn¡¯t care, Sam couldn¡¯t see a face or eyes on their head so that made a lot of sense.


    Since the bats kept their distance from the light, Janik could easily keep them at bay that way, at least for now. Sam took this chance to test out an attack on the closest Golem. He wanted to feel the difference with, and without, the Clustered Strike, so the first attack was just all his weapons individually as normal.


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Bleed 5 triggered. Target immune. ]


    One of the cheap daggers landed a critical hit, which was good but... it didn¡¯t change anything dramatic. Sam was also glad to see the bleed effect triggering but... as the golems didn¡¯t seem to have any vital fluids it made sense that it wouldn¡¯t do much.


    The total damage done also looked... lacklustre, it made some surprisingly deep gashes but nothing looked too debilitating.


    As they stomped closer and the light-warding still worked on the bats, Sam targeted another Golem, this time with the Clustered attack, wanting to visually see the difference. Mentally triggering the Clustered Strike ability, he sent the blades forth.


    [ Clustered Strike active. ]


    Like in the training, he felt a bit weird about it as the timing of the attacks delayed some of them and let others speed up, forcing them all to hit at the same time. It felt extra weird in a live test like this, it wasn¡¯t negative, just weird.


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    Another cheap dagger landed a critical hit, so it was a good comparative attack. This time the damage dealt to the Golem was considerable. It was still standing and walking, but the gashes and visual damage dramatically increased from the first one.


    Sam was happy to confirm that it was indeed working!


    ¡°They¡¯re getting a bit close now, don¡¯t you think?¡± Janik warned with a heavy sense of uncertainty in his voice.


    Sam couldn¡¯t fault him. Having taken advantage of their slower speed he had somewhat forgotten that he wasn¡¯t alone here at the moment.


    ¡°Right.¡± he confirmed as he changed tactics, it was time to kill them!


    Keeping the Clustered attack active, he focused on the first golem, as it was the one closest to them. As the collection of blades landed and penetrated the rough same area of the Golem¡¯s chest, it stopped moving and fell into a pile of rubble, whatever force keeping the different rocks together vanishing.


    This attack was repeated on the other one, resulting in the same level of damage, taking it out easily.


    The bats had retreated to the ceiling and were covering themselves with their arms, using their clawed feet to hold onto the rocks up there, as long as Janik moved the lights up to them now and then, they seemed to remain there without problems. This made the Golems much easier to handle. Their slow stomping speed, and lacking dodging, made it extremely easy to land critical hits, and the Clustered attack did as it should do and handled their defence easily, resulting in him needing only two hits per target to take them down.


    The room only had three golems, so it wasn¡¯t an issue at all, Dia and Janik didn¡¯t even need to do anything.


    ¡°I know this might sound weird but... isn¡¯t this a bit easy?¡± Sam commented. He didn¡¯t want to become arrogant but it was feeling a bit...


    ¡°Well... What¡¯s your damage potential?¡± Janik challenged.


    ¡°Hmm... if everything hits, not counting triggering anything fancy or critical hits... 202.¡± Sam used a brief few seconds to do the math. Though he didn¡¯t have any damage scaling, he did have 25 weapons in the air. Though 20 of these were cheap daggers, it all adds up.


    ¡°Yeah.... with my two swords, my damage potential, with my stats, is about 80.¡± His tone was a bit sour, not like he blamed Sam or complained, just a bit envious or perhaps annoyed at his progress.


    Sam pondered that for a moment. He couldn¡¯t remember the exact numbers but Janik did explain that if he used the Moonblade, he¡¯d do around 150 damage with that one hit, or something.


    ¡°I think we need to get you some better weapons.¡± Sam joked.


    ¡°Ya fucking think?!¡± Janik¡¯s head snapped to look at, and blind, Sam. It was clear this hit some nerve, which made a lot of sense.


    Sam knew that Janik had... bills to pay, based on what he explained earlier he had a lot of responsibilities with his gaggle of kids. He had also explained that the two swords he used are both the cheapest, 10-damage, weapons you could find. He needed two swords for his class but he couldn¡¯t afford better, nor have he been lucky with getting any. Sam briefly wondered if he should donate, or at least loan the Moonblade to him but... that would affect his damage output considerably as it did the same damage as 12 cheap daggers, and more than all his named daggers together.


    Janik let out a surprised expression as Sam squinted and lifted his hand to block the light. It didn¡¯t sound like he intended to do that but more that it was a side-effect of hitting a nerve.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Large Golem: 0/1


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters: 3/20 ]


    [ Experience gained: +20 000. ]


    [ Experience gained: +20 000. ]


    [ Experience gained: +20 000. ]


    [ Companion Elara, level up +1! ]


    [ Elara XP to lv.16: 9 402 / 81 920  ¨€¨€??? ]


    Sam¡¯s eyes widened, this was surprising to see, and it also raised a solid point regarding why PvP was a thing... But perhaps it was more than just the XP and more about the killing or general griefing mentality...


    He was happy to see Elara¡¯s level-up prompt, not even considering it he put her point into Vitality, which had him think of something.


    ¡°Hold on, keep the bats away, I just want to check something.¡± Sam commented to Janik as he took out the toothpick contained with venom toothpicks.


    Inspecting the numbers on them, he was extremely happy to see that even if her Venom was already applied, when her Vitality increased it retroactively increased the values, meaning if he had hundreds already applied, they wouldn¡¯t lose any power if she levels more later!


    This was huge!


    ¡°Elara levelled up.¡± Sam started explaining to Janik. ¡°I put her point in Vitality. It seems that the Envenomed Toothpics retroactively got their numbers boosted.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I didn¡¯t know that was how it worked, but that¡¯s great.¡± Janik didn¡¯t turn his head and kept the light on the annoyed bats hanging in the ceiling.


    Sam took out one of the envenomed toothpicks, he intended to clear this dungeon properly so there was no need to not test things at the same time. Especially since they seemed like they didn¡¯t want to fight anyway.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to test a toothpick on them.¡± He explained to Janik.

 Ch.058 - Rocks!

    As Sam stated he planned to test Elara¡¯s venom, Janik didn¡¯t seem to react but kept the light on the bats as Sam did his thing. Since Sam had all the time in the world to aim and could reach over to them and almost poke them, there was zero chance of missing.


    Stabbing the tiny wooden piece into the closest bat had it react as one would expect being poked by a wooden needle. It made a little annoyed sound, looking confused at what it was. But that wasn¡¯t the main problem. The venom only took a few seconds to start doing its thing.


    [ The target¡¯s Vitality is too low to save against [ Venom 2 ]! ]


    This was a good message to see in the corner of his eye. He had done the math earlier. With Elara¡¯s Venom 2 ability being harder to resist, and Elara¡¯s now higher Vitality, anything with a Vitality of 11 or less couldn¡¯t resist it. He didn¡¯t know if the bats had 11 exactly, 10 or even 5, but they at least didn¡¯t have more than 11. He almost considered this Floor too easy if everything was going to be like this, but... this would be the lowest tier and probably the weakest creatures on this entire floor so... he reeled in that thought.


    The bat started flailing and tried to scratch and bite the area it was poked by the toothpick, but there was no way to get that out like that. The powerful beam of light from Janik¡¯s flashlight let them see exactly what was happening as the bat looked worse and worse by the second. It started stressing considerably, losing its grip from the ceiling and falling to the stone ground, continuing to thrash and shriek out in pain and doing its best to attack an unseen foe around it.


    Its reactions triggered the other bats, having them ignore the beam of light and let go of the ceiling, starting a sailing dive towards the group. Not counting the one thrashing on the floor, there were four incoming bats.


    Janik readied himself. Sam was already good to go and sent his blade swarm towards the first target. Feeling the familiar, but still somewhat unfamiliar, pull and push of the blades as they timed themselves, they all landed solidly in the first incoming bat, taking it out instantly and brutally, the blades cutting and stabbing deep into its torso and arms. It fell to the floor with a limp thud.


    Sam could probably get another one before it was too late, but he wasn¡¯t alone in the group, Dia had darted forward and once the bat was close enough to the ground, delivered a two-punch combo that took it out. Janik stood beside her and kicking off he delivered his attack at the last one, stabbing both blades into its chest at the same time, stopping it dead in its tracks.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Large Golem: 0/1


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters: 6/20 ]


    [ Experience gained: +20 000. ]


    [ Experience gained: +20 000. ]


    [ Experience gained: +20 000. ]


    He was surprised at seeing that the bats had the same XP rewards as the Golems, but since none of them had landed an attack on the group, he didn¡¯t know how things were separated. There was a legit danger that though they were perhaps frailer, they did more damage or had something else going for them.


    [ Experience gained: +20 000. ]


    As he pondered the power difference, the poisoned bat finally seemed to have drawn its last breath and died as well. Giving them the XP for it as well.


    ¡°Well... This went surprisingly easy...¡± Janik commented in a hesitant tone.


    ¡°It is the starter dungeon of this Floor.¡± Sam retorted, mainly for himself, he wanted to curb his arrogance so he didn¡¯t end up expecting everything to be this easy. ¡°Could you see their Health?¡±


    ¡°I could. The bats had 70, and the Golems had 340.¡± Janik shared with a slight smile as he walked over to one of the golems, poking the pile of rubble with his foot.


    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you share it right away?¡± Sam didn¡¯t sound annoyed at this, more curious.


    ¡°I¡¯ll be honest, I forgot... Seeing the golems and bats, I started focusing... haven¡¯t fought them before so I kinda zoned out.¡± He sounded a bit embarrassed at this, even though Sam couldn¡¯t see his face.


    Accepting this reasoning, Sam got to digging through the bats for their cores. He didn¡¯t have a flashlight but his phone had the LED like normal, using that he found the core of the first bat, letting him speed up the process for the next one.


    Dia looked at this... process, with surprised and curious eyes, but didn¡¯t seem to say or do much besides just taking in what he was doing.


    ¡°How do we get the cores of these fucks?¡± Janik asked as he tried to poke and prod the pile of rocks that used to be Golems.


    ¡°I... don¡¯t know...¡± Sam commented, he hadn¡¯t thought about it until now, working on the bats was simple enough but they are fleshy... The golems were not.


    ¡°Can we... crack them?¡±


    ¡°You got a sledgehammer on you?¡± Janik asked as he gently hit his swords together to emphasise that they were in fact, not hammers.


    Sam didn¡¯t answer right away, he didn¡¯t even have a normal hammer. ¡°Can we use the rocks to slam into each other?¡± He eventually asked to try and find a workaround.


    ¡°Nah, the guide said that you need something harder than that, or rather... if you¡¯re strong enough that might work but...¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re not strong enough.¡± Sam completed his sentence. It was annoying as the cores here were probably worth a bit, but if there was no proper way to get them. ¡°When we¡¯re done here, I say we go get a hammer from the village before we return.¡±


    ¡°Agreed.¡± Janik sounded like he was very fond of that idea. Not that Sam didn¡¯t see that coming, Janik needed money, after all.


    They continued, and the Dungeon had a very similar progression as the earlier dungeons had. The main difference was how they were clustered. Janik checked the guide material and confirmed that the Bats hit incredibly hard, but were somewhat frail, the Golems hit average for their level but were extremely sturdy. So the standard process was to take out the bats first then keep their distance from the Golems and whittle them down.


    This dungeon was incredibly dangerous for a melee party. Not considering critical hits, the damage they could deal would easily stack up from the collective attacks. It was recommended to have ranged attackers and someone with either incredibly high Defence or some damage mitigation abilities. Furthering the standard holy trinity in most media and entertainment Sam used to read when young.


    Using bottlenecks when needed, the Golems weren¡¯t just slow they were dumb as well. Lacking brains was probably part of that. The bats were smarter but their lack of Defence and lower health pools meant they were easier to take out, Sam started splitting up his weapons into two groups as it was still enough to take them out. Janik got hit once by a Golem, but only 14 damage made it through, seemingly making their damage 60. Though not insane, it was still more than enough if you considered a critical hit could make it through.


    Taking it slow and doing it methodical like this, got to the point where Sam almost felt he could do it alone. He wasn¡¯t going to, after all, even if he was the main source of damage, he could only do it this calmly due to the others helping with distracting and handling the odd hit that came through.


    Progressing smartly, they managed to clear the rest of the dungeon with minimal effort, they were well geared, not considering Dia who was barely geared at all, but keeping things calm meant that she didn¡¯t need to do too much. Elara levelled up on the way, and Sam kept pumping her Vitality higher, not thinking she should be in combat more than needed so giving her Health and Venom power was the way to go.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Large Golem: 0/1


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters: 20/20 ]


    In the end, they found themselves standing at the end of a tunnel with a large door in front of them.


    ¡°A door?¡± Sam asked. This was the first time he had seen this in a Dungeon, he expected the hallway to go straight into a room.


    ¡°Yes... it seems so.¡± Janik replied as surprised as Sam was. He checked the guide on his phone for a few moments. ¡°Ah, here we go. It seems the Golem is too big to come into the hallways, so it¡¯s suspected this was an anti-ranged measure... That makes sense, we can just stay in the hallway, attacking from afar, if it couldn¡¯t get to us.¡± He sounded a bit bummed out that this was not a possibility.


    ¡°As we open this door there is a field, like the one that brings you into the dungeon, this one brings you to the boss room. It has higher Defence and, this is funny, elemental resistance.¡± He read what he saw in the app out loud with a slight smile. ¡°Well... I suppose there¡¯s no turning back once we go in here.¡±


    Sam mentally wondered if the emergency dungeon exit worked, and as he thought that the prompt popped up, asking if he wanted to emergency leave. Denying that window had it closed but it explained what he needed to know.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.¡°Well, Elemental resistance doesn¡¯t do shit against us, and higher Defence is... annoying, sure, but is it still slow?¡±


    ¡°Yyyyy... Yes-¡± Janik started replying before he had confirmed it properly. ¡°But it also throws rocks around the room, suppose that¡¯s mainly a problem for mages but as long as we¡¯re careful, I think we should be good?¡± He sounded both certain about this but also very questioning of his own words.


    ¡°Well, we came this far, we can always emergency leave if we need to.¡± Sam commented as he went for the door. He didn¡¯t wait to open it, after all, it was just the door to the transport field. Dia followed very closely to him as she tended to do.


    Janik nodded and shrugged as he pocketed his phone, walking towards the door as well.


    Opening the door showed a dead end, but with a shimmering field in front of it, as expected. And stepping closer had the familiar popup about the transport show, agreeing to it enveloped them in the familiar white light.


    As soon as they could properly see, but before the white light properly faded, Sam used it to see what was going on in the dark room. It was large, easily the size of an entire football field, and would easily take about a minute to walk from one side to the other. The place was also littered with rocks, all from small enough that even Sam could casually move them, to man-sized boulders. One pile of rocks, looking eerily similar to the golems could barely be seen in the distance before the transport light faded.


    Janiik was quick on getting his strong flashlight on the assumed target, it was much harder to see in here due to the distance, but luckily for the group, Janik was prepared. Grabbing his flashlight and seemingly twisting it, refocused the wide-angle light into a much tighter and focused spot. Normally that would have been a bad thing when in hallways or fighting something closeish, but at this distance it allowed them to barely make out the hulking moving pile of rocks as it got up from what looked like a long rest.


    The room echoed with the sounds of rock against rock as it got up to face them, at least it looked like it was facing them, a mix of poor light, distance and lacking features on the Golem itself made it surprisingly hard to discern.


    All of them started moving closer, and though Sam¡¯s range had increased it was still a problem doing anything at this distance, but not knowing what to expect they proceeded carefully. Janik did his best to keep the beam of light on their target, though this made walking on the rocky ground harder than it should have been, it was the more important thing to focus on at the moment.


    Getting a bit closer, the Golem bent down before making a throwing motion, there wasn¡¯t enough light to properly see exactly where it threw whatever it picked up, but it was most likely one of them.


    ¡°Spread out!¡± Janik ordered as he changed his movement to get some distance sideways.


    Sam did the same, he intended to grab Dia on the way in case she hadn¡¯t learned the words yet, but she was already moving. She could probably see and hear much better than Janik and Sam put together, so if Sam knew, she probably did as well.


    It didn¡¯t take many seconds before the deafening sounds of a boulder crashing and cracking against the floor sent rocks flying around. Several smaller ones made their way across both Sam and Dia, not enough to cause any damage but still put the impact in perspective.


    Taking advantage of the time the Golem needed to prepare for another throw, the group darted forward, doing their best to avoid the rocks. Janik had to use his light to flash down on the floor, seeing where he was running. Though this made it exponentially harder for Dia and Sam, or rather, for Sam, using his Psyhands to feel the ground in front of him compensated for some of this. Amazingly enough, none of them ended up tripping, although there were several close calls.


    Having to dodge a few more times as the Golem kept throwing rocks at them, it was clear this was mainly an issue if you didn¡¯t have any source of light or had to stand still for whatever reason, perhaps chanting or longer-timed attacks would make this an issue. None of them had the range to exploit this anyway, so the only thing this affected was their approach.


    Finally getting in range, everything changed. Sam pulled out his weapons which were sheathed across his body, Janik went further to the side and started throwing rocks at the Golem, Dia did the same as she saw what he was doing, both seeming to ignore damaging it in favour of drawing its attention. Sam made sure his Clustered attack was active before sending in the first wave of attacks.


    The first volley did acceptably, the hard, dense stone making up its body made it incredibly problematic to power through, causing several blades to effectively miss as they glanced off its body. Among the missing weapons were the Bleeding Edge, the Vampiric dagger and the short sword. The Moonblade and several daggers landed true, one of the cheap daggers even critting. He didn¡¯t take the time to calculate the damage but it should be somewhat decent even considering the Defence rating it had.


    Suddenly, the Golem looked to crouch slightly, this placed both of its hands on the floor covered in stones, before it spun around quickly, with its legs standing still it looked like it had no spine, or that it was set on a swivel. This attack sent a shower of rocks spraying in any and every direction, showering them all in a shotgun of projectiles.


    [ Armour, Defence 60 has negated the damage. ]


    Sam felt relieved, this spray didn¡¯t do enough damage to even hurt him, but he saw something else in the corner of his eye that changed his expression.


    [Dia HP: 160 / 190 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€?? ]


    He cursed himself, having only given her a Defence 10 set of armour, it wasn¡¯t enough to take her down or critically hit her but it was dramatic enough.


    ¡°Janik, protect Dia from the next of those!¡± Sam commanded he wasn¡¯t the leader but Janik didn¡¯t have the same insight into her stats as Sam did, so all he could do was give out a command and hope for the best. He also knew that if his own armour could take the spray without damage, Janik¡¯s was a little better and should make it even easier.


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    [ Critical hit, double damage. ]


    The following swam of attacks, Sam took advantage of the moment the Golem used to regain its balance to aim and strike. He was glad to see that he landed four critical hits, of those were the Moonblade, the Shadow Fang, the  Short sword and one of the daggers. The damage delivered this time was considerable. The Golem started cracking opening up chasms in its body, it was looking incredibly rough.


    Pointing its fist towards Sam, seemingly having recognized who was the threat in the group, Sam expected it to throw or launch something, but instead, its fist exploded, sending a concentrated cone of sharp stones towards him. Dodging to the side, aiming to jump behind a nearby boulder failed spectacularly as it seemed to only make him a longer target.


    [ Armour, Defence 40 has lowered the damage. Critical hit. ]


    [ HP: 85 / 165 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€????? ]


    This critical hit chunked out about half his health, Sam felt panic rise in the back of his mind, but his logic barely managed to keep it in check. Getting back to his feet he prepared for another of those, he was now near one of the boulders so if he got another of those attacks he could dodge behind it properly, and even though that critical hit did a total of 120 damage, this meant that short of a critical hit it would ¡®only¡¯ do 80, not good but more acceptable.


    Janik shouted to get its attention, but it didn¡¯t seem to work, the Golem walked towards the only one who had damaged it, Sam felt fear more than he did two seconds ago and decided to make another boulder a bit further away.


    [ Telekinetic boost active. Time remaining: 29 / 29 seconds ]


    Using the extra strength in his Psyhands, Sam placed large rocks under the Golem¡¯s feet as it walked forward, having to drop all of his weapons in a rough pile for that to work he hoped this would affect the danger. Using three seconds of his available time he got a bunch of rocks placed in the path of the Boss¡¯ steps, Sam smiled as it stepped on them.


    However, his smile didn¡¯t last as the weight of the Golem simply crushed the rocks, creating nothing but a stable platform of pebbles under its massive foot. Sam deactivated the Boost and picked up his blades for an attack, but not before the Golem aimed its other fist against Sam.


    Janik had stepped in and delivered a two-sword attack at its legs, both of his blades landed properly, and though they somehow managed to dig deep into its stone body, it wasn¡¯t enough. As the Golem¡¯s fist started cracking towards Sam, he dove behind a boulder, hearing the crackling explosion sent forward. He was lucky to take no damage but the boulder he was hiding behind was crumbling as a result, another one of those would just break through.


    Popping his head up to check on what was going on, Sam saw that rocks from the area around the Golem were collecting in the area where its fists were located, congealing into a new fist. Not having noticed this before, the first fist had repaired itself and was now lifted towards Sam. He looked around for the next intact boulder, large enough to protect him.


    As he started moving for the next cover he heard Dia¡¯s voice shout with panicked power.


    [ Dia used Spin Kick. ]

 Ch.059 - The Grind

    [ Dia used Spin Kick. ]


    The log listed her use of her limited ability, which was followed by the weird sound of something hard hitting stone, which in turn was followed by the crumbling sound of the Golem, it was the same sound as the other golems, just ¡®bigger¡¯.


    ¡°Holy fuck...¡± Sam exhaled all his collective fear into the air, as he sat down on a thigh-high stone next to him.


    Dia ran over to him, even in this dim light Sam could see her panicked expression, becoming even more so as she saw the wounds on him that he hadn¡¯t properly noticed before.


    Looking over himself, that shotgun of sharp rocks had opened a copious amount of wounds on his body, most were small surface cuts but some were surprisingly deep. The Player vitality kept him from bleeding out, weirdly enough, but it still looked, and more importantly, now that adrenaline was slowly leaving his body; felt painful.


    ¡°Sa krarn, krin?¡± She looked worried.


    Sam had no idea what she asked.


    ¡°Calm down, it¡¯s fine.¡± Sam tried to calm her down with a head pat, but she grabbed his hand and changed her tone to a more aggressive one.


    ¡°Sa kram!¡± Almost pulling his hand like she was scolding him. ¡°Sa, no fine!¡±


    For a brief moment, Sam didn¡¯t consider the pain as he noticed her learning had made significant progress in just the short time she had been working on it. Sure, it was lacking in grammar and proper structure, but that didn¡¯t matter. He couldn¡¯t help himself from smiling in a strange pride. Which just ended up confusing her.


    ¡°Vrana grira?¡± She first asked as she tilted her head to the side, pondering for a second she continued. ¡°Why... smile?¡± Using a second between the words to plan out the next word.


    ¡°I¡¯m happy that you¡¯re getting better in English.¡± Sam kept smiling and finally landed his head pat on her.


    Before she could react, or their moment could continue, Sam was interrupted by the System.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Large Golem: 1/1


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters: 20/20


    Rewards:


    500 000 xp


    1x Random mid-level crafting material


    Bonus rewards for optional step:


    500 000 xp


    Random Box - X. ]


    Without waiting, the rewards were manifested in front of them. Janik was prepared so it landed in his hand, Sam wasn¡¯t so it manifested on the ground in front of him. Both got an Aether crystal as well as a Random Box.


    This didn¡¯t exactly startle Dia, but she still almost reacted as if it did. Not like the things just spawn from nowhere.


    ¡°Yeah boi!¡± Janik exclaimed at the same time. Based on his earlier statements, Sam assumed that Janik levelled up. ¡°I like this new place, at least the XP speed at it.¡± He smiled, looking happy with himself as he stared out into nothing for a few seconds.


    Elara also levelled from this, and as per the norm, he put the point into Vitality. However, he did take a mental note that he needed to talk to her about this. Her base health was very low meaning that besides Venom boost, there wasn¡¯t a massive change to her build. Each point into Vit only gave her +2 HP, but it increased the power of her venom a surprising amount, so in that way, it was worth it, but it didn¡¯t do much for her outside of that...


    Sam took out his cell phone and used the flashlight on it as a light source as both Janik and he chose to open their Random box right away.


    Janik¡¯s opened and flashed out of existence, leaving an Aether crystal as well as a Health potion. Sam¡¯s placed an Aether Crystal, a mana potion, but also a suit of armour!


    Sam wasted no time in inspecting the newfound armour. Lifting it, the folded piece of fabric unfurled into a flowing cloak. It looked to be made of a blend of shadowy fabrics that almost rippled in the darkness, only barely noticeable due to the light on it. It had intricate silver patterns along the edges, almost looking like tendrils of mist. It had a hood hanging from its shoulders. It was surprisingly soft and almost velvety to the touch.


    [ Wraith¡¯s Shroud - Low C-Rank.


    Defence: 50


    - +20% Stealth


    - +20% Enhancement to speed when sneaking.


    - Chameleon: 1/day, make the user transparent when standing still, movement will break this effect. ]


    ¡°Oh, dude...¡± Sam commented surprised, he was very happy with this. Not only was it a cooler-looking piece of gear, but it was enhanced compared to the one he already had. Sure, he lost the 10% chance for total evasion, but it hadn¡¯t proven too practical so far... So a higher flat bonus in addition to an active ability was great!


    ¡°God damn it...¡± Janik¡¯s voice echoed after he had taken a look at Sam¡¯s loot. ¡°I... am glad for you but... I can¡¯t help but be a bit envious here...¡± He came closer with his better flashlight, having already twisted it back to wide-angle as there was no more need for far-reach lighting, sounding honest in his statement he also sounded a bit sulky.


    ¡°Perhaps it¡¯s my haxx?¡± Sam commented as he worked on getting his armour off, he wanted to put on the new thing before they left. Also using the poor code word for the Ascendant thing as it made it easier to talk about.


    ¡°Perhaps... but can you get me some nice stuff next time?¡± Janik smiled, his envy hadn¡¯t disappeared but he looked like he focused on being happy for his friend instead.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s how it works, but... I¡¯ll try?¡± Sam forced a smile at Janik. He didn¡¯t know if there was anything he had control over, but, according to the Entity he... might be able to do something?


    He tried to make a mental note about wanting something for Janik the next time... perhaps that¡¯s how it worked?


    ¡°I suppose that¡¯s good enough.¡± Janik sighed in response, it seemed he accepted Sam¡¯s vague attempt if nothing else.


    As Sam was putting on the new armour, which was just a coat that took a few seconds, he helped Dia swap armours. There was no reason for her to not use the Shadowleather Vest now that it was available, it was slightly worse for Janik anyway so it was much better for Dia. Not only did this dramatically increase her survivability, but it gave her a slight Stealth boon, given how much better she was at that than Sam, this should probably either be a substantial boost to how things worked, or just a drop in the ocean, in either case, it wasn¡¯t a bad idea.


    ¡°Well... We might as well leave.¡± Janik commented as he took out his phone and found a video that he showed to Sam. ¡°I have no idea how we¡¯re going to get that core out of the boss without proper tools.¡±


    The video showed a man explaining how to get the cores out of the Golems, which seemed to be done with a solid hammer and some pitons, cracking it as one would do with large rocks. It split nicely in the video which revealed the core within, easily pryable out with a small crowbar.


    ¡°I suppose we¡¯ll go to the village and get some tools, then.¡± Sam replied and started looking around for the exit portal when he was done putting the armour on Dia. Finding the portal wasn¡¯t easy in the dark, but Janik noticed what Sam was doing and helped with his better light source.


    ¡°Over here!¡± Janik shouted once he found it, having the others go to him and finally exiting the Dungeon.


    Finding themselves back outside, the weather had changed to heavy rain, almost instantly drenching them to the bone.¡±Ah... Lovely mountain weather.¡± Janik commented surprisingly dryly.


    ¡°We can dry up in the village... I kind of want to run this place a few more times today, it might feel hard now but I think now that we know what to expect it should be easier. And if we all get flashlights and tools, it should be much easier as well as actually getting the cores.¡± Sam smiled, not only loving the XP, but getting some more loot from it, both in the sense of Random boxes and also the Cores, was very interesting!


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    Dia looked at the two confused but seemed more interested in stretching and getting used to this new piece of clothing she was given. Her dress was drenched and made moving a bit heavier but it wasn¡¯t the tightest part around her torso.


    Sam did some simple math, there were 20 targets in there, plus the boss. Based on the XP log the kills alone would give him 450k XP, that was his 50% share. Dia got a bit but only once he had leveled due to the cap. On top of this, there was the 1mill XP clear bonus, meaning that he could get almost 1.5 million per complete run. This meant that three more runs would level him, and after that, he¡¯d need about 7 more runs to get another level. So for about 10 runs.


    Now that they had the experience of this run, and would get better as time went, it wasn¡¯t hard to guess why people often farmed dungeons like these. But this raised the question; why hadn¡¯t they seen that many people around?


    ¡°A question.¡± Sam commented out into the air, mainly aimed at Janik. ¡°If farming the ¡®easy¡¯ Dungeons like these are so effective... why aren¡¯t there more people around?¡±


    ¡°Most people need to find a party to do this with. And not all of those feel comfortable with multiple runs. Or people like us who have a stable group, race through it and are already higher on the list than us. You also need to understand that... You¡¯re cheating a lot, more than you think. I think you might have an inflated, or weird look on things based on your luck with gear and how you can almost abuse your Telekinesis.¡± Janik faced Sam, continuing to explain as they walked.


    ¡°Consider me, if I had better Swords, let¡¯s say I didn¡¯t have my kids and sprung for some good swords, I would need two Low-D-rank weapons, which would set me back around $150 000 each. I might get lucky to get some in some boxes or something, but I am also then in reach of things, and forget flying enemies. With D-rank weapons, since I can use two, I¡¯m also specialized for that, most people with that kind of focus usually only do half that damage... But no matter how you look at it, it¡¯s still a matter of safety, or worse; resources.¡±


    Dia kept stretching her body as they walked, trying to work out things, Sam pondered what Janik explained as he went on.


    ¡°Most people, myself included, get tired fast. Don¡¯t underestimate how much stamina it takes to properly fight for your life. You move around, you swing a weapon, sometimes a heavy one. Rangers need to pull their bow, again and again, working their muscles. Mages run out of mana, need time to cast their spells and... Then there is you. You might have it expensive in how you use gear but... Not considering your luck you can be at a safe distance, don¡¯t get tired except dodging or moving around, you have alternative attacks which also don¡¯t make you tired or use any resources... You might take some hits, yes but... You¡¯re kind of cheating.¡± Janik ended his explanation with a wide smile. He seemed to be fine explaining this but at the same time looked like he liked, in a weird way, putting Sam in his place.


    And Sam had nothing to counter with. It made a lot of sense.


    Ignoring the group thing, which explained itself more as Janik detailed it, but the combat thing. Sam could in theory stand still and just lawnmower down anything around him in range. He had a good range and could do surprising damage for a single person, without any proper cost. Yes, he was lucky with his gear, but comparing that to someone else with the same gear, he was pretty well off. Though Janik didn¡¯t comment on it, there were also the allies he had gained, Dia and Elara did their thing in their way, which directly affected him positively. For example; Dia only consumed a tiny bit of the XP they shared, and Elara didn¡¯t take any of it. Now that Sam had been through this Dungeon once, he felt oddly confident that he could clear it alone, or at least with just him and Dia if he wanted to.


    Though he didn¡¯t feel safe doing that, he felt that he could if needed, which was kind of the point Janik seemed to be making. It wasn¡¯t that others weren¡¯t trying hard enough or didn¡¯t want to, it was that it was just harder for them as that¡¯s how the System was designed, Sam was lucky in more ways than one.


    ¡°I suppose that makes a lot of sense... I didn¡¯t think about it that way...¡± Sam had to admit that he was more considering things from his angle than the ones he was passively referring to.


    ¡°Don¡¯t get me wrong.¡± Janik added, bringing Sam out of his thought bubble. ¡°I¡¯m very happy about this, just means I can do what I do much safer. But I¡¯ll admit that I think there will be a point in the near future where you might leave me behind, and it won¡¯t be safe for me to continue with you anymore.¡± The smile Janik had, saying that, was not entirely honest.


    It had tones of honesty and pride in it, but it also looked surprisingly pained, something Sam could understand.


    Sam hadn¡¯t considered that either, he was so focused on everything going on that he didn¡¯t look ahead, something Janik seemed to specialize in. Getting more gear, getting more powerful, continuing as he was. Ignoring the bonus levels he had gotten through the Island, just the speed that he was increasing in power with, was exponentially faster than a normal Player.


    At every other level, Sam could get another point of Energy, giving him two new arms, even without doing the math it was easy to see the potential this gave him. In his case, especially now with everything important in his class calculating of Spirit, he could focus entirely on that. Which alone was a major boon, and having so many things scale of that, giving him range, reach, touch, crowd control, offensive and so on, Janik had a good point; he was kind of cheating.


    All of this pooled together validated Janik¡¯s statement, that they might end up going their separate ways at some point, which wasn¡¯t something that Sam liked to consider. Dia would scale in her way so she would always be with him, Elara was another question but Janik couldn¡¯t take big risks. If he suddenly died, it didn¡¯t ¡®only affect him¡¯ like it would Sam. Though Janik would probably be sad if Sam died, it wasn¡¯t the same, Janik didn¡¯t rely on Sam on the same level as his kids relied on him.


    The answer was simple!


    He would do his best to boost and bring Janik with him. Sam wanted power for himself, naturally, for a variety of reasons. But it would become much easier to do as a group, so all he needed to do was make sure that Janik got the XP and gear he needed. Which in Sam¡¯s mind could be worth it, even though it might be considered a bad idea to ¡®give¡¯ that much to someone, this could be mended by forming a Contract. Though, rather than saying that not to make a pity thing out of it, he decided to keep that in mind for when, and if, it would be needed.


    After all, Sam would prefer a few days of zero-XP grinding to keep his ally with him.


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t intend to abandon you, the only way you¡¯re leaving me is if you choose to do so. Which, I can understand with your kids, but don¡¯t think I¡¯ll leave you behind.¡± Sam faked a threatening tone to make it into a joke. Not considering it at the time this was an uncomfortably real talk, something he didn¡¯t feel entirely right for, so his subconscious forced the horrible humour to compensate.


    ¡°That¡¯s good to hear!¡± Janik either didn¡¯t realise, or totally realised. In either case, the response changed the subject as they were nearing the little town.


    ¡°I say we go in, get something to eat, rest, sell off the few things we don¡¯t want and set off when the rain lets up. I want those levels!¡±


    Sam¡¯s mind changed from the earlier uncomfortable topic and went into grind mode, this was going to be great. Instead of waiting 80 hours to recharge his health, he decided that it was probably going to be better to just get a 50% potion and use that, get back into it faster.


    Since they were currently in Aetheria, Dia¡¯s presence wasn¡¯t questioned or even looked at weirdly, at least that¡¯s what Sam assumed was the reason. Many of the buildings of the village were inside the mountain, cave-like structures and been cleaned and made into housing, and flooring added here and there, all in all, it looked surprisingly pleasant. Outside of the cave houses, there were other buildings, mainly constructed of stone, which made a lot of sense given the area.


    Being somewhat eager to get back into it, they didn¡¯t spend more time than needed in the village, finding the needed tools for Core gathering was hardly an issue, all sorts of mining tools were available, at bleeding prices, naturally. There was a restaurant of sorts there, Sam decided not to question where the meat came from, it tasted a bit... strange, not bad, actually pretty good just not something he had tasted before. They decided to sit close to the fire used to heat the area as they ate, making the drying a bit faster.


    Selling the simple armour Dia used, as well as the Aether crystals gave them back more than they used on the tools, luckily enough, but it was still at horrible prices when a decent hammer cost several hundreds. Strangely it felt better just getting that here than spending time going back to Earth and finding a better place... This just confirmed that Sam had been affected by the value of things vs how ¡®easy¡¯ it was to earn money as a Player.


    Naturally, Janik decided that since Sam had got his new fancy armour, and that they didn¡¯t need two sets of tools, it was plenty enough that Sam got them. Sam decided to agree with it, he felt a bit sorry for Janik, not having the same, potential cheating luck as Sam had.


    ¡°Well, I suppose we have everything?¡± Janik asked rhetorically as the rain was letting up. Not waiting for a response he set off back to the Dungeon, they were going to grind this place a bit!

 Ch.060 - Shopping!

    ¡°So, I say we turn in for the day.¡± Janik commented, looking worn and ragged like he hadn¡¯t slept in days and just completed a marathon.


    Dia shared his worn-out expression, sitting down on one of the properly sized boulders in the large room. All three of them had flashlights of their own, having gotten one for survival and practical reasons.


    Sam checked his phone. It was midday when they started grinding this place. After they got used to it, it took them under an hour to clear it. It was now well past midnight. They had cleared the first Dungeon of the second Floor 15 times, explaining their tiredness. Not only did Sam level twice, Elara levelled four times, hitting level 20, and Dia levelled twice as well. Janik passed level 20, and gained his level 20 skill; [ Duelist¡¯s Defence ], a passive ability that gives him Defence depending on a few factors. He needs to use no weapons or a ¡®duelist weapon¡¯, if he is then he gains either a flat 5 Defense of +20% on top of what he already has; whichever is highest. Given his current Defence of 46, this bumped it to a total of 55.


    Sam had talked with Elara and brought up where to put her points, she wanted him to decide and it wasn¡¯t until pressed that she still felt like hunting, stalking, playing to her instincts. Though keeping to increase Vitality made her Venom amazing, it didn¡¯t do much for everything else, they agreed to level her Vitality to 20 and then start putting points into Dexterity. Once she hit level 20, she also gained a skill as well; [ Stalker¡¯s Strike ], a passive skill that, if she attacks from not being directly seen or perceived, increases the chance to hit dramatically.


    On top of this, since they ran it 15 times, they each got 15 times the reward. The Aether Crystals were free money, but the most substantial of free money was the cores from everything gathered. They had to sell multiple times during the runs due to the sheer amount of them, but after this was split 50/50 netted them $637 500 each. Which was on top of the Aether Crystals they got from just completing the Dungeon.


    Then came the Random Boxes.


    Each of them ended up with 15x of them.


    Sam wasn¡¯t sure if his focus on trying to give Janik a better chance of good loot helped or not, but he was the lucky one between them this round!


    Sam¡¯s 15 boxes netted him 28 crystals and one health potion. Janik¡¯s boxes gave him 22 crystals, a mana potion but also a piece of armour in the 14th box!


    The chest piece looked almost like it was made of stone, rough and earthen in appearance, though it was a bit heavy it was surprisingly comfortable according to Janik.


    [ Earthguard Shell - Low C Rank


    Defence: 50


    -Increased resistance against knockback.


    -Slow health regeneration when standing still on rock or earth.


    -+5 Defence when on natural ground. ]


    ¡°Yeah, I agree.¡± Sam nodded. He might not be the same kind of tired as Janik and Dia, as he didn¡¯t use his body that much, but he had been awake for quite a time, the last few runs were much more sluggish than before, so it was probably safer to just retire for the day.


    There wasn¡¯t much talking on the way back to the village, the blood prices of a room costing $500 per night felt fine at the moment, paying for a room each they didn¡¯t do anything besides crash. The whole way back was a blur.


    Waking up the next day he felt surprisingly amazing. Though he was hungry and felt a great need for access to a toilet, he had grown fond of waking up with Dia wrapped around him as she did.


    She woke as soon as he tried to move, and with her awake he could get dressed and handle the pressing toilet situation, she did the same and still didn¡¯t seem like she trusted the toilet. He assumed it was still somewhat new to her which was the problem.


    They got dressed before leaving the rented, overpriced room to get something to eat, the duo found Janik sitting there, already with empty plates next to him, reading something on his phone connected to a power bank.


    ¡°Jeez, you¡¯re up early.¡± Sam commented tiredly as he walked over to Janik.


    ¡°Well... When you have 17 kids you kind of get used to waking early.¡± As he replied that, Sam noticed a dead expression in his eyes.


    Based on their earlier interactions on the topic, it was clear he didn¡¯t dislike them in the slightest, but the man looked tired...


    ¡°Ah.. well... eeh...¡± Sam desperately tried to find a topic to speak about, to change the subject to something positive. ¡°At least you finally got some neat gear?¡±


    Janik¡¯s smile returned, having a strong hint of satisfaction. ¡°Yes, finally. But I¡¯ll be honest and say that I would love a new sword...¡± Turning his phone around to face Sam, he was showing the TAC shop within the app. ¡°I¡¯m trying to find something that¡¯s within my budget, based on the haul last night, and what I got for the other armour I had... I also have to consider putting away enough for the kids to be good...¡± He seemed conflicted.


    ¡°There¡¯s also the fact that I almost feel that I shouldn¡¯t get half of the money... I mean...  You did like 70% of the work, Dia handled the cores, I just distracted them and took a few hits...¡±


    ¡°And... is that a problem?¡± Sam countered. ¡°I¡¯m fine with it.¡±


    Leaning back in the chair he was sitting in, Janik let out a deep sigh as he changed his focus from his phone to Sam. ¡°I¡¯m not going to give this back, so don¡¯t worry about it. If I choose not to use it, I think I¡¯ve set us up for the next year and a half, if not two years if we¡¯re good on it. This is amazing but... If I instead use $500 000 on two swords, if I swing with both I¡¯ll go from 84 damage to 420, that¡¯s a stupid increase... But is that worth a year of funding for the kids?¡±


    Sam could understand his dilemma. Janik was smart enough to know that becoming a better Hunter would let him make more money, but at the same time, if he died that money wasn¡¯t usable anymore. So it was a risk vs reward kind of thing.


    Sam had nobody who relied on him in the same way, and this kind of damage increase would surpass Sam with one sword, and he¡¯d have two.


    ¡°Hell, I could take out the Dungeon boss with one attack... But...¡± He sat back forward and looked at his phone with pain in his eyes.


    Sam knew he had been using those two starter swords since the start of his career.


    ¡°Well, the solution is easy. You¡¯re fine with using things you get from dungeons, and as long as we don¡¯t have a problem with what we¡¯re running, there¡¯s no problem, right? Bank what you get from things so the kids are good, and we¡¯ll see what happens. After all, my hax might help you.¡± Sam smiled proudly as if he knew this was going to be fine, even though this was something he hadn¡¯t even understood yet.


    Janik chuckled. ¡°I suppose that¡¯s a way to do it, but I¡¯ll admit it doesn¡¯t feel entirely fine.¡±


    ¡°Consider me repaying you for all the help at the start? I don¡¯t think I¡¯d do this well without it.¡± Sam felt honest in his statement, having someone who believed in and nurtured you from the very start was surprisingly important. ¡°Also, I don¡¯t really care about how we split it, I like having you with me, I feel you¡¯re still helping so don¡¯t worry about it, take your share and let¡¯s go shopping.¡± Sam smiled, he didn¡¯t know if this was going to make the situation better or worse, but he felt like speaking his mind at least.


    Janik used a few seconds to process it before he replied, his smile slowly returning as he did, in the end, looking like himself again. ¡°That¡¯s good to hear because I really do want to upgrade...¡± His expression softened, almost like a weight was lifted off his shoulders.


    Sam assumed it could be tied to his earlier comment about being left behind. And it could also be similarly related to the sudden substantial sum he got in his hands, Sam had the same problem a while ago. But right now he wanted to upgrade as well, he was still swinging around a lot of shit daggers, they could be vastly upgraded!


    ¡°Let¡¯s head back to TAC, take a look, and get some over-gearing.¡± Sam smiled as he turned around, planning to leave, though he was stopped by Dia pulling at his arm.


    ¡°Sa.. No... Food!¡± Speaking in single words without a proper sentence still worked fine, she got her point out and Sam was still very happy about it.


    ¡°Ah.. yes... Got a head of myself there...¡± Forcing an embarrassed smile he changed gears to get some food first.


    Giving Dia the phone with the language app, Sam spoke with Janik until they were ready to go. Somewhat planning what to do from here, they felt that it made sense to first go get properly geared, Janik still wanted to set some of the money off, which was entirely his choice, but he looked like he felt better about it.


    Sam intended to sink almost all of it into getting better gear, hearing the potential damage Janik was going to get from his upgrade made him a bit self-conscious about still flinging around the shit-tier daggers.


    ¡°Perhaps I¡¯ll do the same, getting some better weapons is probably going to make things even easier as well.¡± Sam smiled, feeling surprisingly nice about it.


    ¡°Yeah, as long as you keep me around, I¡¯m fine doing this. I said so before and I¡¯ll say it again, the way you don¡¯t have to use any meaningful resource as you do what you do, is straight-up bonkers.¡± Janik looked back at himself now, and he still had a good point. Ranged attacks tended to have some form of cost to weigh up the safety from staying at range, Sam didn¡¯t have that problem.


    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    They talked a bit more before heading back to TAC, the portal on this Floor was just outside the village, so getting there wasn¡¯t an issue and they found themselves back on Earth shortly thereafter.


    Sam intended to let Dia continue her word training on the way, but as soon as they landed on Earth her worry returned. She didn¡¯t seem to like the city''s architecture, tall and wide concrete buildings still made her uncertain. Grabbing Sam¡¯s arm, tail and ears lowering and all in all making herself small, she didn¡¯t have the focus to spare on the language app.


    Dia¡¯s expression changed as they entered the TAC building, being inside, even though still vastly concrete and furniture, it just seemed to make her more at ease. Perhaps this could change when time went but for now, they were here somewhat temporarily. Shopping for what they needed before going back to Aetheria would not only get them back into it, but it would also get Dia back to her comfort zone.


    Walking over to one of the booths, Janik and Sam started browsing after what they wanted, though Janik seemed to have already somewhat picked out what he wanted, since he was waiting for Sam anyway he took the time to look a bit more.


    There were a lot of daggers there, and though he could go for another weapon like the Moonblade, swords had a similar damage per dollar, it seemed, but different weapons had different scaling for damage. This means that to get 20 damage on a one-handed sword, it would count as a High-end E-rank sword, but similar damage on a dagger was a High-end D-rank weapon, which changed the cost slightly. Sam considered that swords might be better, but with the Clustered attack it didn¡¯t matter, and the way math and chance worked, the more attacks he had, the more chance for critical hits he had, but also more chance to miss. One math problem was that if a dagger landed a critical hit, it would do less total damage than a sword doing the same. So he ended up quite conflicted.


    With his upgraded Spirit, each Psyhand could lift 620gram/1.36lbs, so he was getting to a point where he could almost wield light swords in one hand, he still needed two hands for the short sword but that was only barely. However, the more he thought about it the more he liked the idea of continuing as he has so far, the extra weight wasn¡¯t a thing to consider as long as the daggers fit in, he liked being able to split up damage between targets and having the options, it¡¯s also somewhat become his style, so it¡¯s what made sense in his mind. On that logic he decided to sell the short sword, he needed two hands to use it as it was just too heavy for one hand, this also meant that giving each hand a dagger increased the damage per hand.


    Looking through the available daggers, he found a lot of ones with perks, but there weren¡¯t any that felt right. There were some stealth-focused ones, doing extra damage when attacking from stealth, but currently, this was happening less during their grinds, and there were some that could negate the sound of the attack so would be great for sneak attacks; but only for that specific hit so it didn¡¯t affect his entire swarm.


    The only dagger with perks he felt like getting was a copy of the Bleeding Edge dagger he already had, double the chance to apply bleed was not a bad idea, however, the number of times that had triggered didn¡¯t feel like it made up for the double value of the dagger. So it felt better just going for two non-trait daggers.


    In the end, he got himself seven 20-damage daggers, costing $100 000 each. He used the normal 5-damage daggers to fill out the remaining Psyhands, and kept the extra in his backpack in case he levelled up more or needed backups later. This let him fill all his 30 Psyhands with weapons but also meant that he was carrying 8.4kg/18.5lbs of active weapons on his body, not considering the stuff in his backpack. Good thing the Player Strength he had made this fine.


    For Dia, he found a skill that was within budget, surprisingly. It ate up most of his remaining money.


    They met up at the desks where purchases were handed out, having a substantial amount of money deducted from their accounts before they got the stupidly expensive gear they bought.


    Janik ended up with the two non-trait swords, just going for sheer damage. According to his info, if he lands with both swords and not counting for Defence or Critical hits, he could do 420 damage now. Sam¡¯s full volley only hit 320, but given the other bonuses he had, he didn¡¯t feel bad about it, one more level and his Spt would hit an even number again, giving him another Energy, which in turn gives him two more Psyhands and thus two more weapons. This exponential increase in progress made him somewhat giddy.


    ¡°So, you¡¯re not getting Dia anything?¡± Janik asked as he casually waved his hand towards her.


    ¡°Oh, I did, I found a skill for her.¡± He countered. ¡°It should increase her damage at least a tiny bit.¡± He smiled.


    ¡°Ah, that makes sense. Those tend to be relatively cheap, most people don¡¯t care about their non-weapon damage, after all.¡±


    It didn¡¯t take long before this came out as well, a crystal was placed on the desk which Sam gave to Dia.


    She took it with both hands and looked at him with questioning eyes.


    ¡°Use it.¡± Sam tried, not sure if that would register. He didn¡¯t know any words in her language that could work. He knew ¡®food¡¯ but... that didn¡¯t sound right.


    She just looked at him just as confused as before, making Sam turn to Janik. ¡°How do you use those things?¡±


    ¡°Oh, just have her break it, they are surprisingly fragile when used in the right way, though dropping them won¡¯t break them.¡± Janik replied as he was making sure his new scabbards were fastened properly and not in the way of his movements.


    Turning back to Dia, Sam mimicked crushing something in his hand before motioning for her.


    She looked at the gem, then back to Sam before looking at the gem again. She squeezed both her hands around it which had the crystal shatter. A pulse of light escaped her hands as the crystal seemingly aerosolized, all the floating particles floated into her body before fading away into nothing. As the light entered her body she tried to swat it away and almost scratch it out of her skin. Sam calmly stopped her hands, a chuckling smile seemed to calm her down. He didn¡¯t consider that she wouldn¡¯t know what this was.


    [ Beastfolk Dia has unlocked the skill [ Hardened Knuckles ]! ]


    [ Hardened Knuckles


    Increases the Unarmed Base Damage by 20% ]


    This might not seem like much, but it was one of the few of its kind in the shop. The others with higher percentages were vastly more expensive, and with the low damage values of unarmed attacks, even though this was applied to the base before attribute calculations kicked in... If Sam were to use this, his damage wouldn¡¯t even change. The Base Weapon Damage of an untrained fist, was 2, at least in Sam¡¯s case. And 20% out of 2 wouldn¡¯t even bring it up one notch. Assuming that others might have higher, perhaps 5, this would increase it by 1, which could end up decent if you went heavy that way, but for weapon users, it was not always worth the money.


    However, Dia¡¯s fists, feet and teeth had higher damage values, the lowest of which was her punch having a base damage of 10. And it seemed this worked on all unarmed damage, adding the same 20% to her bite, claws and kicks. Since this was added as if a dagger went from 5 to 6 before stats, it increased her damage a little as well!


    Dia¡¯s expression changed to a wide happy smile towards Sam. She was a bit worried and uncertain when the light particles entered her skin, but it seemed like she knew what had happened now.


    ¡°I feel powerful!¡± Janik smiled. ¡°In all my time as a Player, this is the first time I have managed to upgrade my gear this much.¡± He looked eager, like a kid on his birthday.


    His swords looked surprisingly mundane, not far from what Sam would define as an officer¡¯s sword. They were one-edged straight blades, and he looked extremely eager to test them out.


    Not something Sam could fault him for, his damage had only increased by 118 from the expected flat damage before, so an increase of just under 60%. Janik¡¯s increase was a bit more substantial with a total increase of around 400%, which was dramatic. This was the power of having damage calculated from your stats.


    ¡°I suppose it¡¯s back to the second Floor, then?¡± Sam asked rhetorically. He was ready to check out other Dungeons, wanting to continue levelling and advancing. There was also the question about the Ascendant thing, he needed to find out how to take advantage of that somehow.


    Janik nodded, still seeming eager. ¡°Yep, I think we can do the same dungeon once more, just to test things out, get a feel for everything in an environment we know, before we go to the next one.¡±


    Sam had to agree, it made a lot of sense to at least take one test with the new stuff before they continued into the new stuff. It was probably also a good idea to let Dia do some fighting as well, hew knew Janik would want to give this a few tests so it was off back to the Dungeon!


    They headed back towards the tower, but before they could leave TAC there was a loud alarm echoing through the building, the phones of everyone inside started making alert sounds at the same time as well.


    Taking out their phones there was a broadcasted alert.


    [ All Players report to TAC, there has been a Tower Break. ]

 Ch.061 - Six

    Janik and Sam looked up at each other for a few seconds before silencing their phones and looking around to see what to do now. Dia was holding her ears flat against her head, trying to avoid the loud alarm which Sam assumed was probably extra horrible to her heightened hearing.


    The alarm went on for a few more seconds before it lowered to a much more manageable level as what sounded like a recorded voice played over it.


    ¡°A Tower Break is happening, every available Player is to gather outside of the main entrance. I repeat--¡± The message was repeated, but lowered slightly in volume after the third repeat was done.


    Sam felt something in him he hadn¡¯t felt for a while. A certain fear, not panic but... almost. Mentally imagining the time he experienced this from the receiving end. On one hand, he couldn¡¯t say that he felt heroic enough to protect people or want to take that position. On the other hand, he despised that this shit happened at all, especially now that he knew why this was happening. He hated the Tower for letting the monsters escape into the public of the common man, but knowing now that there was no escape involved and it was all a planned event, his hatred grew deeper.


    Running towards the main entrance of the building, many others had already done so and were gathering outside. Making it through the bottleneck, filled with other Players he found himself entering a growing crowd of variously dressed and geared people. Some looked like heroes straight out of the media, others looked like they were as regular as you could get them.


    A group of TAC uniformed staff was shouting information, using megaphones to reach everyone as they stood on an elevated platform crudely raised for the event.


    ¡°There is a Tower Break, luckily this time it¡¯s at the base of the tower and not in a residential area. Everyone needs to work together to stop this.¡±


    The only detail Sam cared about at this point was that it wasn¡¯t in a residential area, this was good news. If this was to happen at least it was in a relatively ¡®safe area¡¯, all things considered.


    ¡°It¡¯s not possible to harm the tower, and there¡¯s nobody this close to the Tower, so take care to not hit your fellow Players but besides that you can go all out!¡± The man with the megaphone ordered. Players had already started moving towards the tower as flying creatures had started to gather a swarm in the distance.


    ¡°Please don¡¯t risk your life more than you need to. You will be rewarded for this, the event is heavily recorded and the recordings will be processed for a while before-¡± His explanation was cut short as a group of goblins seemingly manifested near them.


    Though Sam had no idea how they did that, this was the largest collection of Players in the area so this was the worst place in the city they could land, a second of confusion turned to a two-second purge, removing them from existence.


    The man with the megaphone looked shaken to his core, he didn¡¯t look like a Player so this was probably a horrifying moment for him. A uniformed woman took the megaphone from him. ¡°Sod it, just go kill the fuckers!¡±


    All the Players were already on their toes from the sudden landing of the Goblins, but they spread out right away, TAC had enough uniformed guards nearby that it felt relatively safe, they were also retreating into the building so it looked like that was under control.


    ¡°What about this one?¡± Sam heard someone nearby say as they pointed their weapons towards Dia.


    Turning towards them with murder in his eyes, Sam calmly warned them. ¡±Don¡¯t.¡±


    This seemed to work, taking a step back one of them looked at the other. ¡°N... no... It has clothing and Armour.¡± Turning around and running towards the Tower they left right after.


    Sam took a quick check, Dia was there and so was Janik, sharing a glance and nod they sent off for the Tower as well.


    As they jogged closer, they were far from the actual fight just yet, in the distance they could see explosions and large, flashy spells and abilities used. Not a bad idea to use the time before people gather to use all kinds of large-scale spells. A fireball was not a good idea when friendlies were involved, but now, before people had gotten in range, the bombardment was perfect.


    When the players were getting in range, the mages and longer-range attackers seemed to be out of juice. Like it was a planned effort to have them expend themselves before it became a problem they just threw out everything they had to do maximum damage to the enemy before it would be problematic to continue. Not a bad tactic.


    Weird, almost futuristic hovering aircraft had started to gather, currently, there were just two but more in the distance were closing in. Having ranged Players on board they served as an elevated platform for easier bombardment. The Player System was weird when it came to normal weapons, meaning that it was often somewhat problematic using normal weapons, even firearms, on Tower monsters. This was also why Players were so feared by normal people because unless lucky, it would be very hard to do anything.


    The players started getting in range, which stopped most of the large-scale attacks, explosions and fire were still seen in the air, taking out flyers like bats, small dragon-like creatures and some weird hovering eyeballs. Everything almost looked like it was under control until the tower pulsed.


    Sam had been so focused on what was going on, that he hadn¡¯t seen what the tower itself was doing. Almost like it was gathering energy and slowly building up a glowing pattern, the pattern discharged and went black as a pulse of energy slammed into the concrete and asphalt ground it stood on. As the wave connected everything changed.


    Suddenly a group of larger monsters appeared, it had mainly been Goblins, bats, ravens and so on, Floor one monsters. But now this had changed.


    Out of seemingly nothing, there were now Golems, Lizards, Beastfolk of various makes, large demon-like creatures with spiked skin, and many more things Sam had never seen before.


    A counter-charge started as the monsters came to the Players, catching a lot of them off guard as they just landed and started attacking. This took the lives of a surprising amount of them, making this the first proper attack from the Tower.


    Sam hated this, he grew pissed. Knowing that somewhere some fucked up Entities sat and looked at their TV equivalent as they pushed buttons or however they controlled this. Deciding to create some drama for the sake of entertainment, sending monsters to kill people just trying to protect themselves, their friends and family. Thinking back on his own experience with this, he felt his anger take over, his swarm of blades was unsheathed from his body as he was getting into range of what looked like a Goblin riding a six-legged dog.


    Heading straight for Sam, the goblin was flailing a rusty blade as he steered the dog around obstacles and dead people. As soon as it came into Sam¡¯s Area it had zero chance, Sam brought down every blade he had, and as the 28 blades passed through their bodies, there was nothing left but a pile of gore. Not stopping he made sure that Dia was close, the earlier encounter made him wary that someone might attach her on accident... or on purpose.


    Janik was doing fine, his new weapons served him well as they slid through their targets with great ease, and had it not been for the situation he might have enjoyed the sight. Dia only needed to protect herself which was kind of interesting to notice, the monsters seemingly recognized her as a target.


    Being attacked by a continuous flow of enemies; goblins, dogs, bats, golems, beastfolk, demons and more. Sam couldn¡¯t do more than just cut them down, again and again. He took several hits but his armour kept him more than safe, at least for now. Similarly, the hits Dia took were negated, so this was clear it was just a small fry.


    This continued for a surprising amount of time, the Players were more organized and trained, and the hits they had taken were negated by potions or healers. When they took enough damage they pulled back, letting a fresh wave of Players take their spot up close, it almost felt like they were trained for this and in a way, through Dungeon running, they were. The only problem was the duration, he didn¡¯t know how long this had lasted but he could tell that people were tired, worn, sluggish. They were all covered in sweat, dirt and gore, some struggling to swing their weapons, pulling out for safety to get healed and restored. Dia and Janik were doing relatively fine but it was clear this had taken a toll on them.


    Sam hadn¡¯t paid attention to any numbers, but he knew he had killed a lot of targets, splitting up his blades in groups and sending them around in his area had started making a moving circle of death around him, like a reversed blender he had started spinning blades around him at great speed, hitting anything within range. Dia kept inside this circle and handled anything that barely made it through.


    Larger monsters had started coming out of the Tower, things that took more than one hit from Sam¡¯s blade groups, forcing him to make fewer groups or use all weapons on one target, they started hitting harder and more damage started making its way through the Defence ratings. Sam started this with six 50% potions and one 80%, they were all gone. Janik seemed like he was doing fine with his but Sam¡¯s was split between himself and Dia but had now run out.


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report itThe flow of monsters was slowing down, it was feeling like they were nearing some end. He knew from reading about it that these Tower Breaks had a limit to what they sent out, and though there wasn¡¯t a way to know beforehand you¡¯d know when things slow down and end.


    People around got a renewed wave of energy, knowing it was nearing the end made them more energetic in ending it. As Sam, in Janik¡¯s words, was cheating when it came to energy spent, he wasn¡¯t anywhere near as tired as everyone else. He looked a bit worn, yes, but he was still relatively fine. Around him, people had to be helped out from exhaustion.


    Then it happened.


    The Tower pulsed again, but instead of an army of monsters there stood just one between Sam and the Tower itself. A massive lizard-like creature, easily the size of a cargo truck, with six eyes, teeth larger than your arm, a heat-haze lingering on its breath and thick red-scaled skin. Before anyone in the area could react it had already bit one player and stepped on another, killing both instantly.


    Sam froze, he stood there in a panic, and all he could see was his family being torn apart by this thing. His parents were impaled on its teeth, his friends crushed under its massive, clawed feet. Its fire breath set the entire neighbourhood ablaze. The fear he felt that day as it attacked him as well, the smell of its breath, the smell of burning flesh, the sight of its six eyes collectively staring into his soul.


    He didn¡¯t remember what happened at that point, he just stood there, staring at the massive creature as it waded through the Players around it.


    [ Armour, Defence 50 has negated the damage. ]


    Feeling the sharp sting of a slap to the face break him out of the hole his mind had made for him, he saw a different scene than before. Dead people burning, the horrible smell in the air, attacks landing but failing to do damage to the creature who had now come several steps closer, Dia panicked as she shouted his name again and again, trying to shake him out of his daze. The slap seemingly came from Elara who, coiled around his neck, had used the tip of her tail as a whip to get through to him.


    As Dia relaxed a little bit, seeing Sam¡¯s eyes meet hers instead of staring out into nothing, she took a step backwards before saying something in her language he didn¡¯t understand. Ending her statement with a smile she looked much calmer, not considering the huge creature behind her.


    Sam needed to decide what to do, he wanted to run, just grab Dia and fuck off. Nobody would blame him, nobody could blame him. He knew what it could do, he had seen it firsthand, and it was bad. Looking around for a good path of escape, what he instead saw was carnage, dead players being eaten by various creatures like bats or goblins that were still alive. Several corpses actively burning, weapons, armour, limbs and gore spread across the whole field. He knew a Tower Break was bad but this was nothing short of a warzone. People were screaming, running, attacking and doing their best to stay alive. Most of the easy-to-kill monsters had long since been taken care of, only the dangerous ones remained.


    Wondering why the powerful Players weren¡¯t here to handle this, they were probably out in Dungeons or Aetheria, come to think about it; he didn¡¯t get the Tower Entry prompt when he got in range, did the Entities disable that to stop them from getting help? In a way that was worse than just sending these monsters loose on an unprepared populus.


    No, he couldn¡¯t run. He doubted anyone would hold it against him, he could just run and everyone would be fine with it, perhaps. But no, he couldn¡¯t run. He tried, but his body refused to, the years of anger, hate, anguish, the years on the street, the loss of his family, his friends, everything started with this fucking piece of shit being let loose.


    He reached out for his weapons, and he found most of them, he had dropped them when he phased out before, filling out the extra hands with other Players¡¯ weapons, they weren¡¯t using them at the moment and he needed them. Picking up swords, hammers, daggers, spears, it didn¡¯t matter, he just needed the offence.


    The first volley was sent flying at the monster, he didn¡¯t take the time to find out what was what, the first was just to hit it. And hit it he did.


    It roared in a mix of pain and annoyance, sending a shiver down his spine, Dia looked between Sam and the monster with uncertain eyes but seemed to calm herself afterwards, she seemed to be fine with his choice now that she knew what it was.


    Inhaling deeply, the monster faced Sam. This felt like a breath attack incoming. Looking around for anything to hide behind he saw a large shield, dropping all weapons he used every Psyhand to pull it in, grabbing it with his hands as it came within range. Stepping in front of Dia, hiding them both behind the shield the fire crashed into it with surprising weight. He expected the heat but he didn¡¯t expect weight behind it.


    Picking up more spears, hammers, arrows, anything he could, he sent it towards the target. Most missed but enough hit to make it annoyed, it stopped the fire attacks with a snarl and instead charged Sam.


    ¡°Dia.¡± Sam turned to her before the monster came over to them and pointed her to the side. ¡°Vash!¡±


    She nodded and darted off to the side. For a brief moment, the lizard focused on her and looked like it was about to change target to her, but Sam picked up a spear off the ground nearby and sent it flying. It landed properly, even penetrating its thick hide, but didn¡¯t seem to do much damage. The movement of the running was enough to dislodge it. He needed more power.


    Picking up his weapons again, at least the ones he knew where were, he barely got enough time to pick them out of everything on the ground before he had to hide behind the shield and dart to the side, hiding his movements just enough to avoid being eaten. The shield folded in half under the force of the monster¡¯s bite as Sam barely got out of its reach by jumping to the side. Getting back to his feet, still unsteady, he picked up random bladed weapons he could find, pulling them out of the hands of unconscious or even just struggling Players doing their best to leave the area, he didn¡¯t care and he needed them.


    Even though he took advantage of the Cluster strike, a surprising amount of weapons didn¡¯t hit properly enough to penetrate its thick hide, that said he still managed to draw a considerable amount of blood, for the briefest of seconds he found amusement in the fact that the Vampiric Dagger triggered and absorbed 1 health.


    The creature didn¡¯t like this attack and turned towards Sam, in this brief moment as it stepped towards him, he decided to drop a few weapons temporarily and place the hands over its eyes, activating Force Pulse. Having six eyes worked against it in this moment. Reeling back it tried to use the frontmost two feet to try and rub away whatever was doing this. Strangely, it succeeded as Sam pulled the Psyhands away to pick up the weapons again, however, his plan worked out and it gave Dia the opening she needed.


    Dashing towards the large monster, Dia pounced at it and spun in the air, activating her spin kick. She spun around in the air twice before landing a solid kick in its side, the hollow sound of hitting it around its lungs almost echoed around just before it let out a coughing roar. Though Dia was slightly unstable as she landed, the coughing fit it had was enough to let her get away safely.


    Other Players looked like they saw there was a chance, keeping their distance they attacked from as far as they could, with arrows, spells weapons, and anything they had launched at the creature. Most bounced off or did minuscule damage, but some of it came through and managed to pierce its hide.


    Having no idea how much damage this was, compared to how much it could take, Sam was finally at a point where he could think again. The monster looked in his direction with extreme bloodlust, he couldn¡¯t take it out just like that but what options did he have? He didn¡¯t have the time to check all the weapons on the ground to find the best one, grabbing what he could he sent another volley of attacks towards the monster before it got the time to get out of its coughing, however, it seemed the weapons he had wasn¡¯t the best. He got through the Defence, sure, but it didn¡¯t seem to do too much damage to it this round.


    It charged towards Sam and without the shield to repeat the same tactic, he tried to time his movement alongside Force Pulsing its eyes again. However, Sam was a bit late with the Pulse, the creature had lunged forward and Sam¡¯s dodging abilities weren¡¯t as amazing as he hoped.


    [ Armour, Defence 50 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 45 / 175 ¨€¨€???????? ]


    Even with 50 in Defence, this much damage made its way through, had it not been for the armour he¡¯d be dead right away. Screaming in pain he managed to wrestle himself out of its grasp by Force Pulsing its eyes repeatedly, it let go of Sam in favour of trying to get whatever was affecting its eyes away, but since scratching didn¡¯t seem to work it opted to let out a fire breath all around it as it thrashed, causing the whole area to be covered in flames.


    [ HP: 15 / 175 ¨€????????? ]


    Sam struggled to get out of the fire as fast as he could, but it wasn¡¯t fast enough, he took some damage as he dived out of the inferno, but he came out alive.


    Frantically looking around for anything to help the monster noticed his location and stopped thrashing, focusing its fire in his direction instead.

 Ch.062 - Tower Break

    As the fire started dissipating from the area around the lizard, it instead focused towards Sam. Noticing a Health Potion within reach, not caring what strength it was, he manifested a Psyhand next to it, opened it on the way back to him, and chugged it as soon as it came within reach.


    [ HP: 155 / 175 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€? ]


    This was amazing. He had found an 80% potion, but it didn¡¯t last too long. Even though he did his best to avoid being hit by the incoming fire, he had to prioritise the potion to not die if he failed. He got out of the worst part, but it didn¡¯t stop him from taking damage entirely.


    [ HP: 125 / 175 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€??? ]


    Dia had gotten herself back into the fray now that the fire faded, she delivered a collection of punches and kicks before the lizard twisted its body, sending its powerful tail towards her at frightening speeds. She dodged the best she could, but even with her agility it wasn¡¯t enough.


    [ Dia HP: 160 / 210 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€?? ]


    She was hit and launched backwards, the initial hit sent a decent amount of damage through her Defence, but the subsequent hitting the ground, rolling and crashing into the corpse of a Golem took another 20.


    Sam managed to force himself to not react too much, he wanted to, he wanted to run to her, he wanted to get angry and flip his shit at the lizard, but he knew from abusing the same logic that this was not a good idea. He needed a level head, he had a second to consider what to do as it turned back to him. The incoming attacks were doing collective damage, not many Players had any resources left at this point, but they were making a legit effort. Mimicking Sam¡¯s attempts they had taken to pick up random weapons and throw them from afar, feeding them to the best thrower and just kept chucking. Most of it missed, a lot hit but didn¡¯t make it through but the odd weapon hit an open wound or managed to tear a new one.


    In the micro pause, Sam wondered how he hadn¡¯t seen any damage done to Elara yet, he didn¡¯t complain but she was still around his neck and very much alive. It seems that his body managed to shield her from the fire, the hood of the armour was enough to keep her warm but safe and his body shielded her against the rest. It felt weird but he chose not to complain.


    If nothing else, if Sam could keep its focus... and survive, perhaps they could make it through it.


    Suddenly having an idea, Sam took out the toothpick holder and popped the lid. Dropping all his weapons for a brief moment he used all his 30 Psyhands to pick up a toothpick and aimed them at the monster, doing his best to aim them for the existing wounds, as a toothpick wasn¡¯t gonna work against its hide.


    23 of his attacks hit the hide, failing to make it through, however, 7 made it through and of those 5 were critical hits. He was a bit annoyed that he got 5 critical hits when the damage was 1 per hit, but it didn¡¯t matter, that wasn¡¯t the goal.


    [ The target failed to save against [ Venom 2 ]! ]


    [ The target failed to save against [ Venom 2 ]! ]


    [ The target failed to save against [ Venom 2 ]! ]


    [ The target failed to save against [ Venom 2 ]! ]


    [ The target failed to save against [ Venom 2 ]! ]


    [ The target Saved against [ Venom 2 ] ]


    [ The target Saved against [ Venom 2 ] ]


    Sam was glad, he didn¡¯t know what kind of fortitude this creature had, but he needed everything he could get. It roared out in agony as the Venom did its thing, Sam almost felt a smirk grow on his lips which instantly faded as the behemoth again charged him.


    Preparing better this time, he readied himself for the bite, timing the Psyhands and Force Pulse better, throwing himself to the side after pulsing his eyes worked fine. However, the creature seemed to have realised this pattern, as Sam was struggling to get back to his feet he took a tail to the chest.


    [ Armour, Defence 50 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 125/ 175 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€????? ]


    Rolling and sliding across the cluttered battlefield, he didn¡¯t have a choice besides tucking into a ball and waiting for the momentum to stop.


    [ Telekinetic boost active. Time remaining: 29 / 29 seconds. ]


    Using five seconds of his boost, he managed to break himself down fast enough to not take further damage, but it didn¡¯t help him more than that.


    [ The target failed to save against [ Venom 2 ]! ]


    [ The target Saved against [ Venom 2 ] ]


    [ The target failed to save against [ Venom 2 ]! ]


    [ The target failed to save against [ Venom 2 ]! ]


    [ The target Saved against [ Venom 2 ] ]


    Cursing internally, he was sad to learn that his opponent was resisting Venom, but a few doses still did their job! By the time Sam had gotten back to his feet the creature was again on him, inhaling deeply and before Sam had gotten his footing properly it exhaled a plume of fire. Doing his best to jump to the side it didn¡¯t do anything, noticing it the lizard simply trailed after him, keeping Sam in the fire enough to still take damage.


    His health lowered. 120, 110, 100, 90, as the seconds passed so did his life, he couldn¡¯t see through the blaze enough to pick up anything, in the panic of fire all he could consider was to cover Elara enough that she didn¡¯t take damage as he desperately tried to grab something with his Psyhands.


    Suddenly, the fire stopped as a massive roar shook Sam to his core. Seconds later as the fire faded he could see Janik with two bloodied swords in his hands, standing between him and the monster. Two new, large and deep wounds had opened up across the face, cutting into some of the eyes.


    [ The target failed to save against [ Venom 2 ]! ]


    [ The target Saved against [ Venom 2 ] ]


    [ The target failed to save against [ Venom 2 ]! ]


    ¡°I¡¯ll keep it busy, find something to take it out.¡± Janik commanded as he took a stance towards the overgrown lizard, he sounded livid.


    Sam didn¡¯t want to argue, this was how they had done it so far so why break up a winning strategy?


    The creature manage to somehow lick its damaged eyes, almost like cleaning or moistening a delicate wound, followed by an angry, snarling roar.


    Looking around panicked, Sam picked up the weapons he could find, anything that looked practical enough to work was used, swords, spears, it didn¡¯t matter. The monster stepped forward but Janik¡¯s swipes at it had it second guess. As it inhaled deeply to breathe fire again, Janik stepped in closer. Rather than dodging it stabbed one sword toward its gums, the other at its tongue, damaging both. It shrieked in pain as the delicate flesh was hurt, giving Sam a valuable opening.


    [ The target Saved against [ Venom 2 ] ]


    [ The target Saved against [ Venom 2 ] ]


    As the last two Venom doses were resisted, he had found most of his weapons, as well as some scattered random things. Moving into range he sent them forward, and though most failed to make it through the hide, some of the weapons still did. Mixing in the attacks from other Players and the fact that Dia had gotten herself back into range, they were again doing some damage to the creature.


    Every bite, every tail swipe, every attempted breath, Janik punished. He didn¡¯t get a chance to do much direct damage but halting every attack with the fear of significant pain, the man focused everything on this punishment and nothing else. Sam was glad to see that his next attack landed solidly, not enough to take it out but more than enough to make it look even more like shit than it did before.


    Dia had moved closer to Janik, taking advantage of his punishment for any attempt to land an attack on her. She didn¡¯t have enough pure damage to make significant impacts but it was clear that it trickled through and collectively was adding up.


    The creature had lost most of its vigour, as well as a dramatic amount of blood. Trying an attempt at breathing fire, Janik stabbed both his swords into its mouth, and he hit something important as there was a puff of fire that didn¡¯t leave its mouth, using this opening for a few seconds of aiming, Sam brought down his weapons again.


    The Moonblade landed a critical hit, as did several others of his weapons, and although a group of them didn¡¯t make it through it was plenty enough to finally kill the monster.


    Losing its balance it fell over to its side with a heavy thud, the collective damage and blood loss were enough, and it struggled to breathe for a few seconds before it exhaled its final breath.


    The Players who were still in the area cheered as the eerie glow of the Tower faded, hinting at the end of this ordeal. There were still a few straggling monsters left but they were mostly fliers who got away, or smaller things like Goblins, and were quickly handled. Janik exhaled a satisfied sigh as Dia ran over to Sam with a massive smile on her face.


    Sam was in a different mind space, though the creature had died, he couldn¡¯t stop himself from stabbing it again, and again, and again. Though it was satisfying to win against it like this, it didn¡¯t feel like it was enough. Killing it didn¡¯t bring anyone back, there was no punishment in it. Hell, he wasn¡¯t even sure if this was the same creature that did this all those years ago, it might just be one of the masses and there could be 40 more to meet him on a future Floor.


    As she got to him she noticed his expression, his vacant stare and as she followed it, she saw his weapons stab the dead creature repeatedly.


    ¡°Sa, ila fyrr, Sa rek!¡±


    He heard her, but he didn¡¯t stop. He wanted more out of this experience, he just didn¡¯t know what to feel or how to react to things. The victory felt surprisingly hollow with this much death surrounding it.


    ¡°Sam, it¡¯s fine.¡± Janik¡¯s voice cut through as his hand landed on his shoulder in a supportive way. ¡°You can stab it if you want.¡± His voice had a strange supportive tone to it like he somehow knew what Sam was going through.


    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    Sam kept stabbing.


    [ Congratulations on surviving your first Tower Break as a Player.


    Contribution reward: +5 Attribute Points. ]


    [ Experience gained: 2 000 000. ]


    Sitting in the large mess hall in the TAC building the room was filled with a swarm of words, everyone trying to talk over one another as they regaled their side of the fight to the others. Some were sad as well, having lost friends and party members. Sam was feeling surprisingly weird, on one side he didn¡¯t know what to do, he had gotten some sort of closure on the kind of monster that killed his family but it didn¡¯t feel right. But the main part of his mind right now was managing to win against the Tower Break. He almost died a few times in that fight but it felt incredibly exhilarating, he hated the Tower System for doing this shit, but at the same time it was an incredible adrenaline boost.


    Janik had joined in the talk, and though he was vital to their survival, he seemed to focus more on Dia and Sam¡¯s actions rather than his own, building them up more than himself.


    All Players received a message explaining that TAC would go through the data they had and everyone would be rewarded. The only immediate TAC gave was a free meal and somewhere to rest. The logistical nightmare of all of that alone sounded like their own form of a battle.


    Sam got the cost of his room waived for that one night, in his mind that was a given as he had been paying for it without staying there. On Janik¡¯s recommendation, Sam opted out of the auto-renewal for a room like that and he¡¯d just get a new one every time. It didn¡¯t matter since he didn¡¯t have anything to store in there, so a new room each time didn¡¯t change anything. Since they spent time in Aetheria now and then, it would be better to not pay double. Especially since the prices in Aetheria were quite insane.


    ¡°What do you mean you didn¡¯t get any ability points?¡± Sam asked Janik with a surprised, almost judgemental expression.


    ¡°The reward for me was just XP, you mean you got Ability Points? That¡¯s a bit dramatic, no?¡± Janik¡¯s expression was more curious like Sam had said something outrageous, but not bad enough that he didn¡¯t entirely distrust it.


    ¡°I got two million XP and five Ability Points.¡± Sam answered defensively. ¡°Dia and Elara got jack shit, though....¡± Sam¡¯s expression soured as he added the last part. He was a bit annoyed that Dia and Elara didn¡¯t get anything. Elara might make sense but Dia helped, and though it somewhat made sense due to her accelerated level-ups and level-cap tied to Sam, he still felt she should have gotten something.


    Janik leant forward and stared judgingly at Sam. ¡°You do know that you basically got five levels for free... and at a discount, right?¡±


    This caused Sam to pause... he was right. If he had gotten five levels, then the needed XP for the next level would double five times, but since he just got the points... that was much better... ¡°Holy shit, you¡¯re right...¡± Sam¡¯s face changed from annoyance of Dia not being rewarded, through contemplation as he was mentally checking Janik¡¯s statement, to surprise as he confirmed it was all correct.


    ¡°So... yeah... Not jealous at all.¡± Janik commented in a deadpan, borderline annoyed tone. ¡°Not like I would like that at all, or anything...¡±


    Sam couldn¡¯t help but fail to hold back a small smile at Janik¡¯s reaction. He completely understood it, at least now that he was considering what ¡®just five points¡¯ actually meant. He had been very lucky, compared to Janik, with most of the rewards like the Random Boxes and such, perhaps this was the Ascendant bonus working from the start? He needed to focus more on finding out how to use, or rather; abuse this.


    Elara, who could follow the conversation, simply relaxed coiled up on the table, swallowing a piece of meat from Sam¡¯s plate. Dia was given her own plate and was eating it as an animal, at least she didn¡¯t get her hands dirty but it didn¡¯t look entirely right.


    As they were talking everyone in the room got a message around the same time, a large selection of messages or vibration sounds broke through the talking, forcing an almost vocal silence as their phones were checked.


    It was a TAC system message, explaining that due to the number of people involved, it would take several days to go through. Everyone would be rewarded as everything is checked properly, meaning that through the course of the next week, they would seemingly randomly get their reward. If this hasn¡¯t happened after a total of 7 days, they should contact reception.


    A simple and almost standardized message, in Sam¡¯s mind anything he got from TAC was just a bonus. He got his attribute points and already placed them, he also got some experience but almost more importantly; he got to kill that lizard thing. Now that he had come down from everything and processed it, after talking with Janik and just relaxing, he felt surprisingly nice. He still didn¡¯t know if this was ¡®the one¡¯ that took out his family or if there was a whole species of them, but just doing this felt good. Though he couldn¡¯t have done it entirely alone, with some preparation he might be able to; that alone made the feeling even better.


    ¡°Well... I suppose we can take a few days off, and get proper before we return to Aetheria, or what do you think?¡± Janik got the subject back to their main topic of advancement. ¡°In a way, I¡¯m fine going back but... I want to spend some time with the kids before we do.¡±


    Sam could see on Janik¡¯s expression that he was a bit conflicted, he got it to a certain degree, he didn¡¯t have kids or any family to worry about but he understood the basic feeling.


    ¡°Since we¡¯re waiting for the reward anyway, we can probably take a few days, or; you can take a few days and I can go explore if I get bored.¡± He smiled at the end almost as a threat of leaving Janik behind.


    Janik smiled. ¡°You really think you can make it alone? I mean, what would you do without me handling the tanking?¡± Puffing his chest he built himself up much more than was necessary.


    ¡°Actually sneak?¡± Sam replied with a sly smirk, he was somewhat building towards a sneaking way of attacking, but lately, he just hadn¡¯t been in any position to do so. And the bats could ¡®see¡¯ him even if he did, they tested that in the dungeon which matched up with the information in the guide app.


    ¡°You can¡¯t sneak around living rocks and echolocating bats.¡± Sitting back in his chair, Janik continued his matter-of-factly way of speaking.


    ¡°There are probably other things to attack on the second Floor. Alternatively, we can just run the same dungeon a few times, I feel we¡¯ll handle that fine. Now that I can use more hands and more weapons... I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll do better.¡± Countering by touching on his exponential damage growth, having already gotten more cheap daggers to cover his extra hands as a bare minimum, he didn¡¯t have the funding to get any proper weapons yet. But that wasn¡¯t something a few lucky boxes couldn¡¯t fix.


    It still felt weird carrying 34 blades on his person, nearing 10kg/22lbs of weapons was strangely weird, but it didn¡¯t feel too bad moving around with them. It probably helped that they were placed around his body to distribute the weight, as a bunch of them was in his backpack, the Psyhands didn¡¯t have a problem picking them out, after all.


    However, this brought him to realise something. He was pretty bad in shape most of his life but, all of this carrying things around, moving in mountains and whatnot, he had started putting on some muscle. He was always lean but.


    ¡°Sorry to change the subject but... I just thought of something.¡± Waiting for Janik to look like he was paying attention, Sam continued. ¡°Have I gotten stronger?¡± Inspecting his arms he realised that he had a better way to find out.


    He opened the System window to check his Attributes.


    [ Attributes:


    STR: 5


    DEX: 5


    VIT:   5


    SPT: 36 ]


    ¡°Oh, they have.¡± Sam commented, not specifying what ¡®they¡¯ were. ¡°My Strength, Dex and Vitality have increased by one point!¡± Though he half-shouted this it wasn¡¯t loud enough to break into other conversations, but it was enough to show his excitement.


    ¡°That¡¯s great!¡± Janik¡¯s fake-discussion tone had faded in favour of support. ¡°I told you that training your body would have that happen, I suppose all our moving and fighting finally triggered it a bit. You¡¯re also carrying around a lot of metal, so...¡±


    Sam felt proud about this, this was the first time he could measurably say that he had been working out and seen results. Not considering the boost he got from becoming a Player.


    Janik took out his phone suddenly, read something on it and smiled. ¡°It seems I¡¯m being told to ask you if we can borrow Elara for a few days.¡±


    Chuckling in response, Sam saw Elara turn to look at him with a questioning look while trying to swallow a piece of food, which made a surprisingly amusing expression.


    ¡°I don¡¯t see why not, if she wants to, naturally.¡±


    Elara tried to respond, but being a whole-prey swallower, she didn¡¯t have the cheeks needed to move the food to before talking, meaning she needed a moment to get it swallowed properly before she could respond. ¡°I would like that.¡±


    ¡°I suppose that settles that? I guess we¡¯ll take it easy for a few days, I might pop into a Dungeon or something, if I do I¡¯ll make sure to pop back here every day to check your messages.¡±  Sam liked the idea of taking some time to relax, but at the same time he wanted to get back into it, he was calm now but at the same time he felt like he had plenty of energy to spare. This would also give him some time to work on trying to get the Ascendant thing going.


    Janik nodded and after saying their goodbyes, they split up for at least the day, Elara went with Janik, Dia and Sam to get a room for the night.


    ¡°Welcome to TAC, how can I help you?¡± The receptionist asked, a young man almost looking freshly graduated.


    ¡°I¡¯d like a room for the night.¡± Sam replied as he showed his ID card, having the young man check something on the computer he was working with.


    ¡°Oh, I see here that I¡¯m to inform you that your reward for the Tower Break is calculated.¡± He displayed a practised smile, well beyond his years.


    This surprised Sam, the message listed that it might take up towards a week to check footage and read through things.


    ¡°Already? That was fast.¡±

 Ch.063 - Reward

    ¡°Yes, you¡¯re somewhat of a special case in this.¡± The young man replied with the same smile. ¡°You did most of the fighting with the monster in the end, and your contribution to the fight as a whole was significant. I see here that they put in extra resources to check all the drone and onlooker footage revolving around you and your companion.¡±


    Sam was a bit taken aback. It had only been a few hours since this happened, and since the fight had lasted a while, they had checked things almost in real-time. Perhaps they expected this to happen, and certain people were pre-flagged to keep an eye on them. He didn¡¯t know, but in a way, it didn¡¯t matter; it just meant that he didn¡¯t have to wait.


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s neat.¡± Sam smiled, not really sure how to respond to this, defaulting to a kind of awkward but positive response.


    The young man smiled briefly before recomposing himself, clicking through something before continuing. ¡°As the MVP you¡¯re to get an inflated reward to incent-... I wasn¡¯t supposed to read that out loud, so...¡± He looked a bit embarrassed.


    It wasn¡¯t hard to guess the logic there, everyone probably got an average corporate reward, probably some room, food or discount for something, as those things cost TAC or the government less if you analyse it for a moment, but at the same time it was a value to the people getting it. Giving Sam, as the apparent most valued player in this context, an inflated reward wasn¡¯t just to incentivize him, but to nudge others to put in that extra effort in future cases.


    The man continued after an awkward second. ¡°I can see here that your rewards are...¡± He used a moment to find everything properly before continuing. ¡°A limited lifetime access to healthcare and housing, as well as an equipment voucher valued up to $500 000 on the TAC market.¡±


    Sam¡¯s eyes widened, that was much more than he expected. He wondered what a limited lifetime meant, but that wasn¡¯t too important to him at the moment, he was more interested in the voucher. $500 000 was a significant sum, and once he thought about it, since the purchase prices were the TAC inflated prices, the price this cost them was closer to around 100 000, which though still significant, didn¡¯t feel too farfetched for the mix of a proper reward and PR campaign this could spur. Giving him a voucher instead of money also meant it was easier to control losses vs values. Though this was incredibly corporate in how it worked, he didn¡¯t complain; he helped for his gain initially and this reward wasn¡¯t the original motivation, so anything was just a bonus.


    ¡°That¡¯s... more than I expected.¡± He wasn¡¯t able to keep his surprise even though analysing it all. He could tell the young man was feeling a bit awkward in a sense, perhaps from accidentally sharing information earlier.


    ¡°It says here that it¡¯s added to your Player account, so it¡¯ll automatically fix itself when you get something on the Market. If you get something costing more, you¡¯ll need to pay the difference, naturally. I can also see that $50 000 for the monster¡¯s core was also transferred into the account.¡± He smiled honestly at the end.


    Sam didn¡¯t feel too surprised about the price for the core, but he was glad to at least get it.


    ¡°Thank you, but I¡¯ll have to think about that, then. For now, I just want a room.¡± Sam was getting tired, though he hadn¡¯t had the same kind of exertion as other Players, he had still been running around in the chaos, battling in his way and fatigue had started settling in.


    ¡°Certainly.¡± Changing the subject put the man more at ease, and the process of getting a room was easily handled.


    Finding himself in his room with Dia, he decided that it was probably best to take a shower and go to bed, or if nothing else relax. The normal uncertainties of the facilities in the bathroom from Dia were still amusing, but she was getting used to them. As this room had a bathtub he decided that it had been long enough since he had an actual warm bath, and since it was large enough for two people, there was no reason to not make this into an event.


    She seemed more comfortable with getting into the pool of water, though warm and fragrant as it was than she was in the shower with the weird falling water coming from nowhere.


    Like the other times, it took a while to get her fur relatively dry, she wasn¡¯t sceptical of the hairdryer anymore which made this much easier, having two bushy tails still made this take a while. However, she was still adamant that she needed to groom his hair once they were done, she had learned the word ¡°Important¡± which she commented when Sam reactively tried to pull away from having his freshly cleaned hair liked even before it was dry.


    Migrating to the living room they spent the time relaxing, Sam opted to turn on the TV for the first time in years, landing on news about the event. Seeing himself on recorded news felt strangely awkward, though he felt almost impressed at himself at how he did things. Looking at the recordings he almost looked like he knew what he was doing, which felt far from the case when he was there. He had given his phone to Dia to work on the language training, it was progressing steadily. With what he and Janik had been doing lately, and naturally a lot of aid from the app, she was getting along.


    The news didn¡¯t flag him as a hero, which he felt surprisingly good about, but he was very much the focus when they spoke about the six-eyed lizard in the end. Though the end fight didn¡¯t solidify his telekinetic skills due to the amount of other people being part of it, the fighting where he made the lawnmower dome with weapons around him seemingly did. The guesses and talks about what his abilities were didn¡¯t land entirely, they didn¡¯t get that his telekinesis was focused around ¡®hands¡¯, but they got that it was telekinesis based and for all intents and purposes, they were close enough.


    For some odd reason, the public knowing what he could do felt... weird... Thinking about it a bit more this seemed to be somewhat related to the events on the island. His largest weapon was people not knowing the extent of his abilities, but this also meant that as long as he could avoid PvP, this shouldn¡¯t be an issue. He also only used weapons in that fight due to availability, the few times he used the Force Pulse, it wasn¡¯t properly identified so if there would be any PvP moments in the future, his non-weapon use was still unknown.


    As the evening continued, his focus changed from the repeating talk about the event to just looking at Dia sitting on the sofa, speaking to the phone as it was speaking to her. Doing her best to pronounce words and repeat small sentences. The stark contrast between the chaos, death and fear on the TV to the adorable nature of his companion learning English by talking to a computer in her hands was interesting.


    The rest of the evening before they turned in, was spent on her English lessons, he helped with examples, letting her use her words and talk a little. She did her best to teach him her own language¡¯s words for things, expanding both of their vocabularies slowly.


    The next day, Sam woke up to being alone in bed, Dia had woken up before him for once. Not a problem as he could hear her in the other room responding to the recorded voices in the language app, so she found something to do. As he moved to sit up he could feel the starting onset of muscle soreness, which made a lot of sense given the lack of restraint in yesterday¡¯s movements. He felt extra lucky with how his Psyhands worked now, meaning he could move as little as possible once the soreness kicked in properly later.


    Suddenly the door into the bedroom opened and a very happy Dia looked at him with a huge smile. ¡°Good... Morning!¡± She needed a brief moment between the words but it was pretty good.


    Smiling back at her he couldn¡¯t help but get affected by her enthusiasm. ¡°Good morning, Dia.¡±


    Pointing happily at the phone she had stolen from the nightstand, her smile still wide and bright, ¡°I learn!¡± she darted back to the living room without waiting for him to respond.


    He could hear the recordings on his phone starting up again shortly after.


    Considering what just happened, he was unsure if he should talk to her about clothing, on one hand, it was somewhat distracting, but on the other; he didn¡¯t mind it.


    Chuckling to himself he got out of bed, proceeding with his morning routine before joining her on the couch. The room had a simple tablet as part of the furniture, he decided to use that to check the TAC market as she was using his phone.


    Browsing around he looked for things he could get with his voucher, there were some interesting things like weapons, with and without neat traits, but also skills and armour. But oddly enough, the market wasn¡¯t as saturated of things as he expected, perhaps that was a result of yesterday?


    He found several stealth-focused skills, he was interested in those but the problem with most of them was that they used mana to activate, or an ongoing cost, but he didn¡¯t have access to mana at all. There were plenty of weapons or items he could get, but he wanted more skills, things that couldn¡¯t be taken away or used up. Another problem was that, though stealth was what he was going for at the moment, there were a lot of cases where those couldn¡¯t be used, unless it actively made him invisible or could avoid the ¡®open area¡¯ problem, then places like boss rooms or just in an open fight, it might not be as practical. And though there were several ¡®Invisibility for X time¡¯ skills, they were all reliant on Mana.


    Looking up mana conversion skills, there were many variants there as well. The more common ones were that you could convert your alternate energy source like Ki, into mana, which would again pool up for a non-regenerating pool for use. This could let you charge it up beforehand and use it as needed as time went on, though as this was a ¡®points of energy spent¡¯ kind of thing, he didn¡¯t know how it would work with his non-consumed energy... Either it could work amazingly, just letting him fill that cap right away as his points can¡¯t be spent, or just because the lack of spending could stop the skill from working...


    As he pondered the value of this, he checked up the mana cost vs how much he could stockpile, and the conversion skills had a cap, meaning he couldn¡¯t get more than X in total. Since the stealth skills consumed a decent chunk it didn¡¯t feel worth it. He would need to unlock a proper scaling mana pool, and he couldn¡¯t find that kind of skill on the market.


    What he did find, which triggered his interest, was a series of skills named Static Charge. The basis of it was that every 5 hits, you would get a burst of damage scaling of your ¡®main stat¡¯. Now, imagining this for a ranger or fighter type who would hit a few times a second, like Janik, it made sense that this could be a good bonus for a longer fight. Now, for Sam, who... ignoring missing, could hit up to 36 times in one volley, he could abuse this for up to 7 triggers per volley, or split it up to spread it out more.


    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    Reading into it, it seemed to consider the ¡®main stat¡¯ whichever was highest, so mages could use this but... often didn¡¯t due to the logical dangers. Multi-hitters liked these but it wasn¡¯t as super practical for most as the System valued few but hard hits rather than many. This math meant that someone like Janik, level 20 with equal distribution of stats would be about 20 or something in their main stat, could get a 20 damage burst every 5 hits, if he hits for 200 per sword hit it¡¯s not that high per hit. However, if planned correctly that was a burst, which increased in range based on Rank, so it was not a bad thing for non-AOE Players.


    In Sam¡¯s case, this was doubly special, because he only needed to level one stat, and could hit many, many times per attack. This felt like a good idea!


    The different ranks increased in price dramatically, but the use also improved the damage math as well as the range, it also considered the damage allies would take... At least the user never took damage from this.


    In the marketplace, there were several of them available, he could afford the E or D-rank ones. The $500 000 voucher covered it, but the C-rank had 2x the main stat rather than 1x or 1.5x, as well as a 5m/16ft range, but it cost $825 000. The voucher and Core money made up 550 000, meaning that he needed a little more. But there was one easy way to handle that, the first dungeon of the second Floor in Aetheria. Simple math, considering a solo run, not counting getting something practical in the Random Box, he only needed a few runs for the C-rank one.


    ¡°Dia, get dressed, we¡¯re going back to the Dungeon.¡± Sam commented as he got up and began the process of gearing himself up. She seemed to understand well enough and started getting dressed as well. He helped her with the Psyhands where needed as he did the same to himself, and soon they both were geared up and ready.


    They got some breakfast on the way, Sam checked his phone messages as they ate, and he got some images of Elara and Grace, they were having fun, which was nice to see, he replied with the fact that they were going into Aetheria for a few runs, the only reply he got was a thumbs up emoji.


    Shortly after completing their breakfast, they found themselves in front of the Tower, and seconds thereafter they were in Aetheria on the second Floor. Having brought their core harvesting gear they set off towards the first dungeon. Dia was carrying most of the tools to get the cores as that was going to be her job, as it had been the many times they had completed it, and this wasn¡¯t going to be much different.


    The weather was nice, a cold breeze was the only thing in their way, and as they entered the Dungeon yet again the process started. Now with a few more daggers, it would just make the process easier.


    They took the first round a bit slower, simply because Janik wasn¡¯t there. The safety paranoia had rubbed off on Sam, so he took it slow for this round, testing out things as safely as he could, making sure he was doing it as well as possible. He wanted to survive this, after all.


    Luckily, there was no reason to fear, the experience of having done this so many times before, and knowledge of the exact defence and health values, made it all much more controlled. The dungeon boss was a bit more annoying due to the rock shotgun attack and no Janik to help draw aggro, but since they knew about it, keeping at a distance and making sure there were always boulders to dodge behind trivialized that fight more than he expected. And before they knew it the first run was completed.


    Dia had done her job, gotten all the cores, so her fur wasn¡¯t exactly clean. Sam had to repeatedly tell her to not lick herself clean, no matter how much she wanted to. And rather go for a clean in a nearby stream of water on top of the mountain between runs.


    He was also massively lucky, though he didn¡¯t get anything from the clearing rewards, opening the Random boxes proved much more interesting, getting three crystals, but also an accessory and an armour set.


    [ Resonant Mantle - Low C-tier


    Defence: 50


    +5% mana regen


    7% damage reduction from magic


    -3% mana cost to self and allies ]


    [ Wind''s grace, Low C-tier bracers, +30% speed ]


    He liked the bracers and was considering the Resonant Mantle for Dia solely for the increased Defense, but he was unsure about losing the 10% evasion. But a constant 10 points less damage is more consistent and reliable, so he had her swap over. The mantle was a blue velvet mini-cloak reaching her midsection, and draping over her shoulders. It clashed with the colours of her dress but that wasn¡¯t the main thought for using it.


    Leaving the dungeon area back to Earth to go to TAC, Sam halfway expected something to happen but it was surprisingly uneventful. For a moment his mind went back to wondering why people didn¡¯t just do this most of the time, go and grind through the easier dungeons for massive profit. But, thinking back to what Janik said, and how little tired he was compared to everyone else in the fight just yesterday. He was cheating somewhat with how his method worked, he didn¡¯t get more tired than walking or physically moving around, and though there was some dodging and diving behind cover in this dungeon boss fight, that was about it.


    Using his Psyhands didn¡¯t tire him at all, no matter how much he flailed them around, he could go into lawnmower mode all day without breaking a sweat, the Telekineticist class like he was using it, gave him the benefit of a ranged person without the resource cost of anything. He just needed to get weapons and he was fine. If he had relied on Mana, he would need to use potions to restore his pool or wait for it to regenerate naturally, arrows could break or get lost, melee attackers could get hit and lose health which is the worst part, and everyone got tired.


    His view on things was indeed a bit weird... Considering this as they left the Dungeon, Dia went to the stream to clean off the mix of gore and dust of her arms before they headed back to TAC. With this last run, and especially when considering the extra stuff from the Random Boxes, he was fine on funding for his goal.


    The rest of the process was almost a bit anticlimactic, going back to Earth, going to TAC, selling the stuff and the now extra armour, getting the skill and that process was over.


    [ Static Charge III - C rank


    Every five hits on the same target discharges a 5m/16ft pulse of electricity, damaging all enemies for [Main stat x2].


    -Hits any target in range, including allies and the target the pulse triggers on.


    -Does not hit the user


    -Static charges remain with the target for a short time, the hits do not need to be consecutive.


    -The damage from this skill will not trigger static charges in targets. ]


    Sam felt good about this, though the way he spread out damage with his Psyhands could be considered an AOE attack, this was his first real AOE attack. And though it still felt almost routine in how he gained it in only a few hours from the moment he set out he couldn¡¯t help but still feel amazing.


    Dia looked at him with wide eyes as he crushed the Skill Crystal right after getting it from the TAC representative working behind the counter but having done this before she seemed to know the gist of it.


    Due to selling everything and buying the skill crystal, he ended up with $121 000 left, depositing that into his account he didn¡¯t know exactly what he wanted. He could get some weapons, lower skills or something else, but in the end, he decided to save it for now and think about it rather than being impulsive.


    Ordering something to eat and having that delivered to the room, they headed back up to relax and perhaps spend some time together learning communication. Sam already had a weird feeling, having gotten used to the Player lifestyle, that though he relished the feeling of relaxing, he also kind of wanted to do something. Playing with Dia was probably the best thing to do for now.


    Tomorrow he decided that he¡¯d test out his new skill, and get a feel for how it works in the training halls. So even though he was relaxing he¡¯d get something neat mixed in.


    The rest of the evening followed the same format as it had done the others, and the following day came soon enough. Dia had taken to put a lot of time into the app to learn English when she could, so she was awake before Sam was again. Going through a similar routine as the day before they ended up going to one of the training halls, specifically one that could handle the use of magic skills, just in case the skill would damage anything.


    ¡°So that room has multiple targets, and I can just put in values and see the results after?¡± Sam asked the receptionist he had gone over to confirm this with.


    ¡°Yes, Sir. You can use magic in there and you can move the targets around if you need to, and they are all connected to a display so you can see things like damage, Defence and so on. All of that can be set via the computer.¡± She smiled surprisingly honestly looking for a receptionist.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s great. Then I¡¯d like to book one of those rooms.¡± He was looking forward to testing this, though it wouldn¡¯t overlap, so the Static Shock couldn¡¯t stack up on others, or with enough targets that would just be a neverending series of explosions, he still hoped for a few functions.


    ¡°Certainly, room 6 is available, so you can use that.¡± She smiled as she pointed towards the hallway leading into the training halls.


    In the middle of turning around, a window popped up in Sam¡¯s vision that sent a shiver through his very soul.


    [ Conditions met. ]

 Ch.064 - Static Charge

    [ Conditions met. ]


    Sam¡¯s expression changed to almost panic. The last time this happened he was gone for a while, only a week in his mind, but why is it happening again? It felt clear that this was drama for the Entities, perhaps something to get rid of him as an Ascendant. One follow-up question was if Dia was coming with him or not... or if he would even disappear.


    Turning towards Dia and the receptionist with a disturbingly stressed expression he focused on the receptionist.


    ¡°If I suddenly disappear and she doesn¡¯t come with me, please contact Janik and take any money from my account you need to keep he-¡±


    [ Conditions met; Player will be transported to Solo Dungeon. ]


    Before he could complete his sentence the warm white light had done its thing yet again.


    The light faded, and he immediately looked around, sending out all his Psyhands to try and map anything and everything. He was in a dimly lit hallway with a dead end in front of him. The hallway was made out of polished stone speckled with glowing red crystals speckled across them, giving the area a very poor level of lighting. The walls, floor and ceiling were reflective enough that he could see the sources of light, as well as himself, barely on their surface, creating an almost kaleidoscope-like feeling. Since he could touch it all with his Psyhands, nothing seemed to be an illusion, at least.


    He saw this going on for a while before it turned to the right. The first thing he checked was his phone; as expected, there was no signal. He started walking down the hallway.


    It was completely silent, the only sound he could hear was his steps echoing across the smooth, hard surfaces around him. As he walked towards the bend he did a quick inventory; he had his phone, the box of poisoned toothpicks, the box of normal toothpicks and all his weapons. He didn¡¯t bring his backpack of survival or exploration stuff as he intended to go to the training room in TAC, not... this...


    The only light source he had, if needed, was his phone. Even with the flashlight on, it¡¯ll last quite some time as it worked on Aether crystals instead of normal batteries, one of the massive upgrades for the phones marketed towards Players. But he didn¡¯t need to use it just yet, though each glowing crystal was dim, collectively it wasn¡¯t too bad.


    Rounding the corner he looked straight into a large room, it had the same surface and dim glow as the hallway, so he was able to see all the walls, ceiling and floor. The entire room was like a short oil-drum shape, where it wasn¡¯t as tall as it was wide, but the top and bottom were bulging outwards as if overfilled with pressure. The whole place was about the size of a soccer field, just symmetric in shape. This meant that the floor had a slight bowl design to it. In the middle of it was a pedestal-like cylinder, which was the only different or standing-out detail in the whole area.


    No quests or information had popped up, so he didn¡¯t have much choice than walking to the pedestal, he would end up there at some point anyway, so might as well do it now before he grows tired, hungry or worse. The larger room made his echo die out before it could properly bounce back, making everything feel a bit weird. As he came closer to the pedestal he saw that in a concave area on the top of it, was a spherical crystal that lit up more the closer he got, until it turned painful to look at. Reaching out with Psyhands he could feel it was there, and round as he saw, but he couldn¡¯t move it at all, at least not with the power of the Psyhands. As he got within arms reach of it, the crystal pulsed even brighter and shattered.


    [ Wave 1 ]


    A window popped up, taking his focus for a second as he wondered what this was about. As soon as the window closed he saw that the pedestal was gone, and in its place with the same warm white light that transports him around, a single goblin stood.


    Before Sam could react, it lunged forward with its rusty broken sword and landed a hit in his thigh.


    [ Armour, Defence 50 has negated the damage. Critical hit. ]


    His expression was panic, he was being attacked from nowhere but now that the attack landed, he almost wanted to chuckle. Had the situation not been this fucked up he would have found it amusing. But afterwards, his expression changed into uncertainty. Why was this happening? And what was going to happen afterwards? The system window mentioned Wave 1... Wave one, the first... of how many? And how would that change?


    Quickly considering things he realised that he needed to test and find out the rules for this, trying to think on it, hoping the System would explain things proved useless. There was no information popping up and no explanation.


    During the time these attempts of learning went on, the Goblin kept attacking Sam, adamant that he could get an attack through. Though most of its attacks were normal hits, now and then a critical hit landed, but it didn¡¯t go through his Defence.


    Sam took his time, he walked around the area, trying to find things as the Goblin kept shouting... what Sam assumed were obscenities at him, relentlessly attacking him. But after this had gone on for a while and after Sam confirmed there were no more exists than the one he came in from, he took out the goblin.


    A simple attack with a cheap dagger took him out.


    [ Wave 1 complete, choose reward:


    Random Box


    Sustenance


    Time extension until the next wave.


    The next wave is in 1 minute. ]


    ¡°Ah... fuck...¡± Sam commented to himself, he was somewhat understanding how this was working out...


    As the counter started counting down immediately, Sam realised he had to choose, but at the same time he wondered if he could wait to accept, would he get multiple windows open and ready for triggering when he wanted? And if he went for more time; just how much time was he given? What level of sustenance and how much did he get if he went for that?


    There were many wildcards here, he understood there was some kind of wave survival thing, he had played them in games when he was younger. A lot of the Tower System had RPG-like elements to them, and though it wasn¡¯t the same it was close enough for comparison to things. After all, the System was some reality show thing.


    The first reward was bound to the weakest, smallest or just ¡®less¡¯, if there was any difference between them, but he had to imagine that getting the random box, or time, on wave 1, had to be worth less than wave 50 or something. So for now it was the best to test with.


    He left it for now, moving it out of his focus without selecting anything, he also wondered if the next target would land in the same area as the first goblin. Briefly considering getting the core, out of habit, and wondering if blood from the collective mobs being killed would pool up in the centre, his worries were handled as the dead goblin disintegrated into smoke-like particles without leaving anything behind.


    ¡°Ah.¡± Sam let out subconsciously as he got the answer before he properly asked it.


    [ Wave 2 ]


    Time hit zero and the same white light faded in like before, this time there were two Goblins. Both came in around the centre of the area, roughly where the first landed. This time Sam didn¡¯t wait a second and cut both down right away, having zero chance of survival they both instantly died, and the same reward window opened, it looked identical except for listing that it was the Wave 2 rewards instead. At this point, he also realised that he hadn¡¯t gotten any XP added to him, no popups nor anything in the XP log.


    This testing proved true the next two Waves as well, completing Wave 4 which had four goblins attack him, and now having 4 windows open. Needing to find out how the contents worked, he took the Wave 1 and 2 reward windows and triggered a Time extension on both.


    [ Time extension selected: +1 hour added to pool. ]


    [ Time extension selected: +1 hour added to pool. ]


    The countdown to the next wave now had a choice next to it, there was an option to extend with [ 2 hours ] available. It didn¡¯t auto-extend and the time seemed static, at least for now. Needing to check the others, he triggered Sustenance on one, and a Random box on the other.


    [ Sustenance selected ]


    [ Random box selected ]


    Sam held out his hands as he would normally do when it came to getting these rewards, and this didn¡¯t seem to be an exception, in one hand a random box came into being, and in the other, he had a small bottle of water as well as a single slice of bread with some toppings on it. The simplest of meals. Immediately opening the Random Box, it produced a single E-rank Aether crystal.


    Thinking about this for a second, it made sense. If it followed his expectations then the Sustenance gave him a simple meal, time gave him time he could use to get rest, and random box gave him the stuff he could find in a random box but ranked either according to the Wave number or the monsters called. He didn¡¯t know if the food would change but at least there was food.


    Now the question was, how long was this going to last?


    The next wave came in, five goblins now, all angry and all ugly. They charged him and though he could take them out with one blow, he needed to test something else.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.Bringing in five simple daggers, he needed to attack one Goblin to see how that worked out. He didn¡¯t know if he needed five separate attacks or if a clustered strike counted as multiple or one. The simplest way to test! He sent the five daggers into one goblin.


    [ Static charge triggered ]


    A sphere-like wave of eclectic energy snapped outwards with a powerful electric snapping sound, hitting all of the goblins that were within the 5m/16ft range, which was all of them as he targeted the central one. They all died instantly.


    Sam felt a small smile form, he didn¡¯t know how this would work on targets with a Defence rating, but just this part was amazing for him. He would need to test other things but he needed a weaker source of damage... He took out a few toothpicks and got ready for the next wave, leaving the reward window to the side for now.


    As the timer hit zero, five small goblins spawned with one larger one, so a total of six but with one being bigger. It didn¡¯t look like it was on a chief level, but it was just larger.


    This was a perfect test, so he went to it before it became too annoying. He easily shanked them with the toothpicks, and it was almost dumb that this worked. Pricking them with the toothpicks seemed to ¡®mark¡¯ them with a static charge, which looked like a small icon over their head, however, the icon disappeared when they went behind each other, so he needed to see them to see it.


    He pricked one of them twice, then another of them twice, he now had two individuals with two charges each. They had all gathered around him in the hopes of damaging him but none of them got through his Defence, so he had time. As he ended up picking one of them the fifth time, the static charge pulsed outwards, hitting and killing them all. He didn¡¯t get to test other things with that group but he got some important checks.


    The seventh wave started, it was now five goblins and two larger ones, still at the start of the process he had plenty of time to test, after all his Defence was much, much higher and harder than needed at this point. If he hadn¡¯t been wearing his armour this would have been quite different. But he had found that if he killed them instantly, the next wave started right away after the one-minute delay, but how long could he postpone it?


    Temporarily disabling Static Charge before killing all except one of the weak ones, he reenabled it for future use but intended to keep this goblin alive. Sam sat down and prepared to take some time and relax, the Goblin didn¡¯t want any of that, though, and though it couldn¡¯t hurt him, it could damage his items or keep him quite annoyed. Luckily for Sam, it was weak as shit, since the collective strength of the Psyhands was almost 26kg/57lbs, he could just hold it down without much effort. Placing one hand over its mouth kept it from screaming but allowed it to breathe, so Sam now had plenty of time.


    Having no idea how long he was going to be here, he had an idea he wanted to check, looking up on the TAC information app, he read up on the use of Aether crystals, he wondered if he could charge his phone with them, and to his surprise he could; it wasn¡¯t even a problem. Many phones had a port he could just touch an Aether crystal to and it would absorb the energy it needed, it would degrade the crystal and damage its value, but in a pinch it was possible.


    This was good news, as long as he had random boxes and Aether crystals, he had a working phone. And though he might be lacking connection or internet, he still had a pocket computer he could play around with. Right now he decided to test this out and waste battery on it, he wanted to get it to lose a few percent at least, but that would most likely take a few hours due to how long battery time they had.


    [ Next wave in 1 minute. ]


    According to the clock on his phone, he had been lounging around for about an hour when the window popped up, the goblin was exhausted trying to get through Sam¡¯s defences for so long. So it seemed he only had an hour to do this, which made sense. If not then he could just spend the rest of his time like this, given that he had enough food.


    Pocketing his phone he got up and waited, wanting to see what happened, and as expected; when the timer hit zero the next wave came in even without affecting the existing target, so now there were five small goblins, three large ones and the one from last round.


    Needing to test one more thing, he sent his full arsenal at one of the goblins, using the Cluster attack he wanted to see how that worked out.


    [ Static charge triggered ]


    The group was killed by the wave of energy like before. It seemed that there was a cooldown to how many times it could trigger from one target, he would need to find that for max abuse of this ability.


    The following wave, number 9, was similar, it had five small goblins and four large ones, he needed to test one more thing, and split up his weapons, sending them at two of the targets, as he hoped this triggered two pulses, one from each target. The pulse wouldn¡¯t trigger the others according to the skill description, but it was still very practical.


    He hadn¡¯t needed to move so far, as they all spawned around the same area, so he could just mow them down without effort, though that was mainly due to them being the scrub tier. However, this was about to change a little.


    [ Wave 10, boss wave ]


    Sam readied himself, but was somewhat disappointed, in a good way. As the group spawned with five goblins, five larger goblins and a Chieftain. It wasn¡¯t an issue at his current level but thinking back to Janik¡¯s comment, had he been a mage or ranger, he might have run out of resources by now, and a warrior would be more tired than he was... a bit, perhaps, depending on his training.


    As the group charged him, two of them opted to throw their rusty swords at him. He didn¡¯t even bother with dodging at this point, but he did wonder; should he extend the fights or just rush through the easier ones before things started doing damage? He will suddenly end up needing rest anyway, but if he rushes through the easy ones he could stack up on time and resources, and then be more ready when the time comes.


    On the other hand, he could delay things and take it easy with the scrubs to postpone the harder things, this wouldn¡¯t tire him that much, but that could also make him properly tired when the dangerous things came along.


    Pondering this for a brief moment, as the attacks against him failed and failed again, he concluded that he needed resources anyway, and he was far from tired or worn, having just woken up a few hours ago at most. It was better to face this with energy rather than waiting. Just ploughing through the easier ones would also allow him to amass reward windows that he could just trigger whenever he needed them, so it wasn¡¯t all bad.


    As he was considering this, there was another thing he needed to test first. The goblins he had killed so far, along with their weapons, disappeared right before the next wave spawned, was there a way to affect this?


    Not intending to give the group around him any effort, he attacked the boss with enough daggers to trigger Static Charge, the 62 damage from the 2x Main Stat calculation took care of the group with zero effort, and all of them almost disintegrated around him.


    Sheathing his weapons he used a mix of his Psyhands and normal hands, picking up weapons and holding onto their corpses, making sure he was holding a weapon and a corpse in his normal hands, and similar in Psyhands, maximizing the test results.


    [ Wave 10, boss wave, complete, choose reward:


    2x Random Box


    2x Sustenance


    2x Time extension until the next wave.


    The next wave is in 2 minutes. ]


    ¡°Oh!¡± Sam exclaimed in surprise, the boss waves gave double rewards, as well as having a double delay before the next wave, that was very good to know.


    Holding onto the corpses and items, making sure to not touch them all, he waited for the timer to reach zero. The untouched corpses disintegrated and the ones he held onto remained, both physically and with the Psyhands, same for the weapons.


    This was an incredible find, but he wondered; would they remain after killing the next wave?


    The next wave materialised, which was a single but larger goblin, he had a proper weapon this time and looked a bit sturdier. Giving into the spirit of testing, Sam let himself be attacked.


    With a shriek, the Goblin charged at him and landed an attack, it was a critical hit due to lack of dodging and Sam¡¯s Defence ate it without any damage to him. The Goblin fell immediately afterwards, and Sam got to testing his next plan. Letting go of some of the corpses and weapons from the last wave he waited for the timer. As expected the things he was no longer interacting with were dematerialized, but the ones he was holding onto remained, letting go of them immediately after the dematerializing was done, they remained as the two new Goblins spawned.


    He didn¡¯t know what to do with this information, but at least now he knew.


    He let go of every corpse and rusty weapon, walking over and sitting down within range of the spawning area, he pulled out all his weapons and cut down the two new arrivals, he was going to blitz through everything he could, only testing the damage now and then by getting hit, he needed to know when he was in actual danger. Not expecting that to be for a few waves he could at least do this as passively as possible to keep his energy use down as much as he could.


    With 34 weapons floating ominously around him, aimed at the rough spawning area, yet another reward window was added to the stack as he waited for the countdown to end.

 Ch.065 - Swarm

    [ Wave 39 complete, choose reward:


    Random Box


    Sustenance


    Time extension until the next wave.


    The next wave is in 1 minute. ]


    [ HP: 190 / 200 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€ ]


    The window moved to the side with its 34 friends, Sam sat in the same spot that he had been sitting in since he started grinding through this, he had taken damage once, letting a harpy land a critical hit on him, 10 damage made it through hinting that its damage was 30 beforehand. At that point he didn¡¯t let anything critically hit him by dodging slightly, it wasn¡¯t enough to avoid getting hit but enough to mess with the critical hit chance. This was plenty for now.


    After the 20th wave, he had to start spreading his attack out a bit to one-volley the group that came in. Initially, he could easily take out the main target with his swarm of blades, and the Static Charge could take out the rest, but things started having more than 60 health, so splitting up his attacks into two waves handled that problem easily.


    [ Wave 40, boss wave ]


    So far he had been fighting things that he had been fighting in dungeons, meaning that it was just more of the same. Based on progression he expected the 41st wave to start including things from the second Floor. But he didn¡¯t know just yet.


    The 40th wave materialised in, five Ravenfolk and a RavenLord. Splitting up his volley of weapons, he sent the named blades at the Lord and split up the other weapons, he successfully triggered 6 static charges, one on each target. Though the Statuc Charge didn¡¯t count as an attack for the sake of stacking Static Charges, they still damaged everyone. And since they all spawned in the same area there was no chance to escape.


    Each target took 360 damage from the Static Charge pulses alone, and that wasn¡¯t counting the base damage from his weapons. Seconds after the targes had manifested, they had all been killed. Another wave is complete.


    Checking his phone as he waited for the countdown, it had been a bit over an hour since he started focusing on this, killing everything as soon as it came through, save a few tests here and there. All in all, this was following what he expected.


    The timer counted down and he had a moment to think. He needed potions, he was probably going to take damage at some point so there was no need to not have potions at hand. He also had a lot of windows to work with, so he might as well select a few boxes and hope for the best.


    Currently having 2 hours available, he used 10 more to get more time. Not feeling tired yet, having two chances of around 6h each was probably a good idea. Then he started opening Random Boxes.


    The next wave of opponents came in well before he got the potion he wanted, though they were easily taken out he had to smile a little having imagined the Wave pattern, it was only a bat from the second Floor this round.


    Sam needed to open a total of 18 extra boxes before he had gotten two potions, both D-rank, so healing 50%. This was good enough for now. He had ended up with a mana potion as well, which was useless to him, as well as 33 Aether crystals. However, the 6th box he opened gave him a Skill Crystal.


    [ Appraisal - Rank A ]


    Sam smiled a bit, this was a good skill to get, though it would have been cooler outside of this soon-to-be death trap. He knew this was stupidly expensive based on Janik¡¯s earlier statement. He said that his bottom-of-the-barrel version of that skill would probably still go for over a million. And this was the second-highest rank. He almost wanted to save it and sell it when... or if, he got back. It would probably set him up for quite some time, but... Even Janik, the man who was considering using money on himself and was a Player for quite some time without upgrading his weapons, said that it was worth using that skill on himself.


    During his pondering, another wave spawned but it was just two Batfolk, letting out a scree as they dived towards him they didn¡¯t make it far before they turned into half-blended bats,


    ¡°Fuck it.¡± Sam commented to himself as he crushed the Skill crystal, it was too amazing to let go, even if he lost a few million on it.


    [ Skill Unlocked: Appraisal - A ]


    [ Appraisal - A


    Reveals health, full stats, detailed skill descriptions, and known abilities of targets. ]


    Almost getting eager, Sam activated [Appraisal ] and looked forward to the countdown ending and the next wave. As the countdown hit zero, three bats manifested in the air, and Sam focused on one of them.


    [ Batfolk - D


    Level 20


    STR: 4


    DEX: 13


    VIT: 10


    SPT: 0


    HP: 70/70


    Damage: Bite 54, Claw 72.


    Defence: 0


    Abilities: Hovering, Damage bonus (Dex), Echolocation. ]


    [ Echolocation


    By sending out soundwaves and reading the returning echo, the user can determine the location of everything and anything within range.]


    He kind of knew about the Echolocation ability from the lack of hiding possibilities in the second Floor dungeon, but it was still interesting seeing it. This was also going to make it much easier to plan out things, splitting up weapons and knowing what or who to attack.


    The same windows opened in his vision for the others, sort of ¡®sticking¡¯ to their location as they moved, it was clear which window was for which target, and this was incredibly practical.


    Sending out the swarm of blades again, they intercepted the bats aiming for him, halting this attack before it even got close to becoming a problem. Another wave is beaten and another is incoming.


    Sam felt a bit... arrogant at the moment. Letting out a sigh as he realised this he knew that was going to change soon enough. He might have gotten a new skill making planning and reacting considerably easier, but... when something came that had more health, damage or he couldn¡¯t hit properly, all that was going to change. He could feel powerful now but he needed to ground himself more. He had no idea how long this was going to last.


    The 44th wave came and went, it was just four of the bats, and the same happened to the 45th. The 46th came with a Golem, much as expected and if this processed further the 50th would probably contain the Golem boss from the first floor.


    [ Golem - D


    Level 20


    STR: 15


    DEX: 2


    VIT: 15


    SPT: 0


    HP: 340/340


    Damage: Fist 60


    Defence: 10


    Abilities: HP bonus, Damage bonus (Str). ]


    This was the first almost problem, as a Defence rating was present. Though having killed hundreds of these, even before he got [ Static Charge ], it wasn¡¯t a huge issue. The five bats that joined the fight just turned into easy Static Charge targets. Focusing on the Golem he did more than enough damage to take it down with a single attack, [ Static Charge ] took care of the bats within range, and the ones that kept outside of its range were taken down in the second volley.


    Again he didn¡¯t need to move from his sitting position. He wanted to think that this was too easy but... that¡¯s how you get murdered.


    The next few waves were the same, they spawned, he spread out his attacks a little to get more Static Charge pulses, and everything just died.


    [ Wave 50, boss wave ]


    Sam got up, he might use a bit more effort on the boss, as it might need some serious dodging if he couldn¡¯t take it down right away. He was ready for the manifestation of the group as it had done so far, but as the 50th wave manifested he found something different.


    [ Wave 50; %!(¡è#¡±! ]


    ¡°Ah.... shit...¡± Sam didn¡¯t feel good about this one, his expression turned from an attempt to keep calm and not go over arrogant, to dread and a few steps away from panic.


    As the manifesting light faded, in front of him stood a nightmarish mound of skittering insectoid limbs, pulsating sacks and eyes. It moved as a single entity but looked like a collection of millions of legs, carapaces, eyes and mouths. Its ¡®surface¡¯ constantly moves creating an unnatural asymmetric rippling motion like stiff fur in an uneven wind. The entire room was silent save for the chittering and clicking from its hundreds of thousands of mandibles. Seconds after its manifestation a wave of rotting flesh, excrement and compost washed over him.


    [ Crawling Hive


    Level: N/A


    STR: N/A


    DEX: N/A


    VIT: N/A


    SPT: N/A


    HP: 1000/1000


    Damage: Slam: 60, Ranged: 60


    Defence: 40


    Abilities: One of the Swarm, Parasitic Spawn, Contagion Burst. ]


    [ One of the Swarm.


    Any damage lost can be regained as long as the insects making up the body make their way back to the main body. ]


    [ Parasitic Spawn


    Any attack can leave parasitic insects on its target, causing ongoing damage and draining its host. ]


    [ Contagion burst


    On taking enough damage, releases a burst of toxic gas that, if inhaled, can temporarily blind and damage its target. ]


    ¡°Well fuck you too!¡± Sam let out an annoyed shout, at the System for not showing the details he hoped, at the monster itself in front of him, but also at the Entities that run this shitshow and decided to just ignore all logic they had made so far!


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.The hulking mass of insects darted towards him, though it was the size of a station wagon it moved with surprising and unnatural grace, skittering across the floor towards him in an erratic serpentine pattern.


    Sam panicked slightly at the sight of the incoming swarm, making him send his own swarm to meet them. His blades hit well and tore through the hive with the resistance of dirty water, it didn¡¯t even slow the creature down but it did count as a landing attack, sending a Static Pulse from the monster which tore out a substantial amount of insects, spreading them across the floor. As this happened a violently aggressive, sickening-coloured puff of spores exploded into the air from its... ¡®wound¡¯.


    But, before he was able to pull his daggers back the whole thing was on top of him. Jumping to the side it managed to swipe an infested claw at his leg, hitting properly.


    [ Armour, Defence 50 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ Infected by [ Parasitic Swarm ]. ]


    [ HP: 180 / 200 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€? ]


    [ Crawling Hive HP: 630 / 1000 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€???? ]


    Sam could feel the creatures tearing through his leg, and before he managed to get to even look at it he could feel the moving under the skin, slithering through the wounds, back and forth within it. This almost sent him into shock, panic kicked in, and he tried to scrape them off with the dull side of a knife without luck. Grabbing around the wounds with his Psyhands he desperately tried to dig them out, ignoring the pain he squeezed on the wounds, pushing some of the insects out with a sickening pop as a parasitic pimple.


    As he was struggling, he noticed something horrifying.


    [ HP: 178 / 200 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€? ]


    [ Crawling Hive HP: 730 / 1000 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€??? ]


    The insects were tearing through this flesh, the adrenaline boost and shock had dulled his pain but he could see the effect on his health, his defences meant nothing. At the same time, now looking at the creature, insects across the floor came running back to the main ¡®body¡¯, crawling into the area they came from and healing it, its health supported this.


    He had no other chance, he did some damage last time, and it had to work again. Sending out his swarm of daggers, including the one now covered in his blood, they all passed through almost like nothing.


    Several crits landed, making it all feel a little better. The Vampiric Dagger and Moonblade also triggered, causing a little more damage but also healed him the tiniest bit, offsetting some of the parasitic invader''s damage.


    Again the Static Charge pulsed, tearing out a large chunk of insects, the hive managed to let out a haunting collection of thousands of pained sounds that collected into a nightmarish shriek with hundreds of tones resonating together.


    [ HP: 177 / 200 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€? ]


    [ Crawling Hive HP: 404 / 940 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€???? ]


    ¡°W... what?¡± Sam commented vocally without realizing, why did its max health go down? Its current health was slowly increasing by the second but...


    His train of thought was violently ended as he did his best to dodge what looked like an incoming spike made up of thousands of spiders, caterpillars, ants and worse. Jumping to the side and doing his best to redirect it with his Psyhands, all he did was tear off the piece he pushed against with his telekinetic control, not slowing the rest of the ¡®projectile¡¯ in the slightest.


    It hit his arm.


    [ Armour, Defence 50 has lowered the damage. ]


    Doing his best to get all the insects off before they dug into him, dropping many of his weapons in panic and using the Psyhands to get everything off as soon as he could, he got most of them.


    But not all.


    Seeing the end part of insects burrow into his arm faster than he¡¯s able to get them off was horrifying, they didn¡¯t do much damage but seeing the bulge under his skin... moving... wriggling. Feeling this inside his body, churned his stomach. Throwing up he stained the glossy floor with the remnants of his breakfast before he, unfocused and in panic sent another wave towards the monster.


    Turning towards it as he sent his collection of blades, he found that it was closer than he expected, seemingly having charged him as he was working on getting the bugs off, the blades landed properly through its body, triggering another Static burst as it sent another wave of insects flying.


    [ HP: 163 / 200 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€? ]


    [ Crawling Hive HP: 204 / 640 ¨€¨€¨€??????? ]


    As the bucket of insects flew out of its body, the noxious gas came with it, hitting Sam. He did his best to jump away as soon as he saw it. From the collective pain of getting the Static pulse hitting it, and Sam¡¯s jump, he was able to get away from whatever attack it was intending to do.


    Getting to his legs, feeling the insects inside his body moving around, churned his stomach yet again but that wasn¡¯t the worst. His vision faded, more and more like tunnel sight, until it was entirely dark. He couldn¡¯t see anything, anything at all, not even the System Windows. All he could perceive was the sounds of skittering around him, and the horrifying and painful feeling of things moving inside his body, eating, clawing, writhing through muscle and flesh, his lack of sight had him over-focus on this, worsening it considerably.


    The next thing he noticed was the feeling of something piercing his thigh.


    There was no update he could see, no system update showing him his health, the negation or resistance of damage, nothing. It was only blackness, pain and agony.


    He needed to make this stop, he had to make it stop. He was within the AOE range of the Static Charge but the creatures inside him took no damage. The ability didn¡¯t hurt the user, the creatures were inside him... they were protected by him...


    This made things feel worse, he needed to do something, he couldn¡¯t just sit there, be stabbed again and again, being eaten up from the inside.


    Sending out Psyhands towards the angle he expected the monster to be, he found it easily enough. He felt the insects writhing under his telekinetic hand, biting at it, clawing at it. There was no pain, just horrifying discomfort.


    But now he had a target.


    His blades were picked up, one hand left on the collection of creatures to know where to aim, and something clicked in his mind. The reason the max health was lowering. That one skill, it could regenerate based on letting insects come back to it, it made sense now, he didn¡¯t need to just kill ¡®it¡¯, he needed to kill ¡®them all¡¯.


    Sending all weapons he could find at it, he knew where to aim and he could feel the same weird give as they landed, followed by the sound of Static Charge doing its thing. Another horrifying shriek followed by the sound of thousands of exoskeletons landing on the stone-like floor. He couldn¡¯t stop, he needed to keep hitting it, or rather; he needed to keep triggering Static Charge.


    Splitting up his weapons into groups of five, hoping to whatever sadistic assholes who made this System that the Cluster Strike would work on insects, he started stabbing them wildly onto the ground.


    The sound of metal hitting stone again, and again, he kept missing the creatures but he kept attacking the main body, though less damage up front it triggered the explosion as intended, again and again. He could feel another stab into his body, more of those... things... entering, making room where they shouldn¡¯t exist. The pain became worse and worse. He didn¡¯t know how much health he had left, he felt like utter shit but didn¡¯t know if this was just the situation, his low health or both.


    Pulling out a potion to drink, his brain stopped him in panic as he felt things crawling across his body, if he opened his mouth this would just be another opening to invade, he wanted to put the potion against his lips but his body refused to listen.


    Static explosions kept happening, again and again, he thought it was working but he didn¡¯t know, things kept moving around in his body, he could feel warm wetness trailing down his body, he was bleeding, and a lot.


    Then it all stopped.


    A final static shock silenced the room and stopped the movement inside his body, and his eyes started working again, slowly.


    ¡°Extend! God fucking damn it, extend!¡± He couldn¡¯t see any system windows, but he had seen close to 50 of them now, he could extend the duration before the next Wave... the next... Thing.. Came to be. He needed more time, he needed to rest, to heal.


    Over the course of several minutes, his eyes worked more and more, and he could see the two most important windows soon enough.


    [ HP: 66 / 200 ¨€¨€¨€??????? ]


    [ Wave 50; %!(¡è#¡±!, complete, choose reward:


    5x Random Box


    5x Sustenance


    5x Time extension until the next wave.


    The next wave is in 1 hour, 47 minutes. ]


    Using his phone, he could barely see the screen but he could activate the flashlight and at least somewhat look around. There were piles of insects, most blown apart by the Static pulses, with no singular ¡®body¡¯ in sight but there were heaps of them. Checking his body he couldn¡¯t see anything moving in his body anymore, but he had a horrifying realization.


    They were still in there.


    Using his dagger he started digging out the ones he could, he didn¡¯t even notice the pain nor the damage he was doing to himself, he could barely see from the tears flowing and the blood gushing from his wounds. He didn¡¯t know how long it lasted, using all his Psyhands he tried his best to squeeze them out, feeling them, finding them, it worked to some degree but...


    Things he touched wouldn¡¯t despawn...


    [ HP: 42 / 200 ¨€¨€???????? ]


    Sitting down in a pool of his own blood and tears he hugged his knees and let it all out.


    [ The next wave is in 1 hour, 34 minutes. ]

 Ch.066 - Nibbles

    [ The next wave is in 12 minutes. ]


    Sam felt strangely better. He was still horrified and found himself scratching at his wounds as they were healing. At this exact moment, he didn¡¯t like being a Player. For several reasons. The Player constitution healed him, and closed his wounds, though not at a massive speed it was still enough to start fixing his body.


    But nothing came out of the closing wounds.


    That was the part that had his stomach twisted and scrunch up, he wanted to expel everything but... it didn¡¯t help. His stomach was empty, and sadly his body was not. The time was running out for the next wave, for the next monstrosity, the next abomination of creation sent to fuck with him. He didn¡¯t want to do this anymore.


    Considering what to do, he instinctively decided to drink one of the potions, parts of him felt better seeing his higher health, and other parts of him cursed his survival instinct. He wanted this to stop, and seeing his wounds close up entirely not knowing if any of those things were still in there... No... they had to be... Which just made it worse. He felt sick and disgusting, the vomit and blood on his clothes weren¡¯t even a problem compared to that.


    [ The next wave is in 2 minutes. ]


    Should he extend? Should he just take his chances and see what happened? It wouldn¡¯t be entirely bad if it all just ended now, right?


    In his spiral of thought he let the timer run out, triggering the next wave.


    [ Wave 51 ]


    As the window informed him about the next wave, the number 5 seemed to glitch for a brief moment and disappear.


    [ Wave 51 ]


    [ Wave %1 ]


    [ Wave #¡±¡ì1 ]


    [ Wave 1 ]


    It went through a few combinations of numbers before it disappeared altogether, now it just listed Wave 1 instead.


    This gave Sam something to focus on, something else to consider for the briefest of moments, and his mind desperately latched onto it. What did this mean? Why did this happen? Was some horrible thing going to come out now as well or...


    Before he could properly finish his thought process, everything around him disintegrated into glowing particles before leaving him alone for a second, after which a single Goblin spawned in.


    [ Goblin - E


    Level 1


    STR: 1


    DEX: 2


    VIT: 1


    SPT: 0


    HP: 5/5


    Damage: Claw 2, Bite 3


    Defence: 0 ]


    Was this some kind of joke? Sam got to his feet and blamed everything in existence on this single Goblin, it became the target of all his anger, confusion... fear... This System had to be fucking with him, the Entities had to be fucking with him. This didn¡¯t seem right at all, there had to be some bullshit, as soon as he hit the Goblin it¡¯d be made of insects, or perhaps it was part of a larger monster that¡¯d come in from the side and spear him.


    In an overcompensating fear, Sam sent everything he had to the Goblin. His entire swarm of blades impacted the small body, pulling itself together with [ Clustered Strike ] active. As the swarm of blades connected it triggered [ Static Charge ], pulsing out with electrical energy.


    The Goblin was torn apart, the sheer amount of damage alone killed it 70 times over, and in the following explosion, another 12, as its body was first cut to shreds before pulsing outwards like a water balloon filled with chunky blood. The result was a large area around where it once stood now being covered in blood, charred bits and a singed rusty dagger.


    ¡°What?!¡± Sam exclaimed in disbelief. He still felt this was nothing short of bullshit. There had to be something, something extra coming. The System wouldn¡¯t just have him go through 49 normal waves to then have... that... thing... fight him and then reset back? What did this mean? Would it all happen again? Was he going to fight normal creatures for another 48 rounds and then the... thing... again?


    Dreading to even think of it, his skin itched when he did, he could feel things moving in his body sending shivers down his spine and a general ick across his body. Parts of his mind knew he didn¡¯t feel anything, nothing was moving, and everything was... fine... But like feeling the vibrations of your phone in your pocket even while looking at your phone on the table in front of you, he felt things wiggling inside his body.


    [ Wave 1 complete, choose reward:


    Random Box


    Sustenance


    Time extension until the next wave.


    The next wave is in 1 minute. ]


    Sam stared out the window in disbelief, it was true... it was just a single Goblin... the same one he did at the start.


    ¡°No... It just... doesn¡¯t make sense... why...?¡± Sam didn¡¯t get it, why was this happening? Because he was an Ascendant? He hadn¡¯t even abused his supposed abilities... at least not yet.


    ¡°Fine, if that¡¯s how it¡¯s going to be.¡± Sam was pissed, still scared but his anger was taking over. If they were going to send him through solo dungeons like this and fuck with him, he was going to fuck with them back. He had no idea if this was going to keep looping, continue to Wave 51 and onwards, or whatever. But, since he didn¡¯t have any proper danger until near the 50th wave, he now had time to test and fuck around, the first 20 waves were harmless even with critical hits.


    He was going to drag this on, take it easy and... hope to fuck that the 50th wave was going easier next time, at least now he knew the tactic, he could just trigger Static Charge once to get the bugs spread out, then keep triggering Static Shock on everything around to abuse the AOE damage, that should handle it easily. The power of knowledge was indeed amazing.


    Sitting down he started focusing, if the Entities were going to fuck with him through the system, he was going to try and fuck with the System in return.


    He had no idea where to start, what to do with it or even what he should focus on, but bringing up his complete information sheet, he focused on it, trying to change numbers, letters, values... anything and everything. To give himself time he had started the reverse-blender move he used in the Tower Break, just having his blades spin around him like a spinning-bladed cactus, he was safe from being attacked by the shit-tier mobs that spawned the first waves. If they tried their luck in getting close, first of all, they were ¡®blended apart¡¯, if they made it through, it wasn¡¯t like they could damage him.


    This went on for a while, waves 2, 4, 6 15. He had no idea what he was looking for, but he was sitting there for quite a time, focusing on numbers, changing things up, changing ranks on skills, adding skills or... just anything. Starting awake and was fine, he had grown tired a while ago. He had used a few rewards to get sustenance, food and water, but he was incredibly tired. The swarm took a lot out of him and time was becoming a problem.


    As wave 16 was about to start, he decided it was about time for him to get some rest, he was already struggling to keep awake, so it was a good idea to use the lower-level waves to test out resting if he overslept or had problems waking up, the creatures that would spawn couldn¡¯t properly hurt him so he would wake up from their attempts.


    ¡°Extend time, 8 hours.¡± Sam commented. He probably didn¡¯t need to speak it out loud, but it felt better in his mind to do it, it felt more definite.


    The countdown went from the remaining 48 seconds to 8 hours and 48 seconds. He set an alarm on his phone for 7 hours and 30 minutes and went back into the hallway he landed in, sitting in the corner at the end of the hallway, next to the pile of Aether crystals he got from the Random boxes, trying to sleep. Wanting to test something at the same time he held a dagger upright in the air with a Psyhand and mentally tried to imagine holding it while he slept.


    Waking up with a shock at the sound of the phone alarm and its vibration, Sam scrambled to pick up his weapons and attack anything around, but he was glad to see that there was nothing there. It was just him in a weirdly illuminated hallway. The dagger he had been holding as he fell asleep was no longer in his Psyhand, in fact; the Psyhand was not even manifested. So, though they were subconscious for the most part he needed to be conscious for them to exist. Perhaps that was something he could train later but for now...


    Using one of the reward windows, he got some food and water, it was surprisingly bland but it was still a normal, simple meal. The countdown was currently on 29 minutes and 36 seconds, he hadn¡¯t been awake that long yet so it all matched out properly. And with his score of Arcane crystals, as long as he didn¡¯t break his phone he should be fine for alarms and dumb entertainment. He hadn¡¯t exactly preloaded any movies or games for just such an event, but he had some recordings or things he could browse through.


    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    The last half hour before the 16th wave was gone before he knew it, deciding to test out to see what would happen if he remained in the hallway, he sat there silently, waiting. As the timer hit zero he had another idea.


    [ Activating [ Chamelion ] ]


    He hadn¡¯t used it yet, but his armour had an active ability, activating it made his body go transparent, almost glass-like. It wasn¡¯t perfect, but the light in here was shit, so perhaps that worked out.


    Holding his weapons against the ceiling of the little hallway, just to keep them out of the way, partly to have them ready but also just so they didn¡¯t give him away. It didn¡¯t take too long before a large goblin came walking into the hallway, hesitantly looking around. It didn¡¯t seem like it could see Sam, something that made him surprisingly happy, but his glee was short-lived as the goblin smelled the air and walked around. Much like a dog sniffing out a treat, he found Sam faster than he¡¯d like it to have happened, though confused it successfully identified Sam¡¯s location and attacked.


    Sam took the hit and returned the favour, the goblin didn¡¯t have a chance and was shredded before it knew what was going on. Getting up he sighed, that could have been a neat way to get some free rest but alas, he didn¡¯t account for him smelling like shit right now, and if the Golins had an animal-level sense of smell, that wouldn¡¯t matter.


    Walking out of the hallway he found the other spawnees noticing him and charging.


    The 16th wave was done a second later.


    He got another reward window that he added to the pile. Having a minute before the 17th wave happened he wondered if he should use any of them before things happened later. He was stupidly lucky with the skill crystal, the odds of that were super low but not zero. Though he could get another one, potions or other stuff like gear, he felt that he was good on gear for now, he needed to get out of here but... he might need more time.


    Picking more time 10 times from the default windows, he ended up with 12 hours available again, it would have to do for now and it could give him a solid rest or several smaller ones if he needed to. He didn¡¯t have a backpack so anything he got he would need to carry or just shove in the pile of crystals in the hallway.


    Sitting back down, he returned to trying to mess with the numbers on his status page, increasing... anything. Focusing on numbers, values, and letter grades, but it wasn¡¯t like he even knew what he was looking for.


    The 17th wave came and went, nothing was problematic yet and he was using the Static Charge skill with brutal efficiency. Also having over 30 weapons helped a lot here, though he couldn¡¯t trigger Static Charge on one target more than once, for an undetermined amount of time, he could multi-trigger on multiple targets, creating chaos.


    He wanted to test the duration between triggers, but nothing lived long enough and was safe enough to test with, so that would have to become a thing later.


    As the monsters from the 17th wave disintegrated before the 18th wave landed, he was still annoyed at the XP not moving at all, not a single point had been given in here, so either it was hidden, or would be given to him once... if he leaves this place, or he just didn¡¯t get any... In any case, it was annoying.


    Abusing the survival instinct of even these Dungeon-level intelligent creatures, the reverse-blender move kept him relatively safe and kept them at bay enough for him to have time to test and focus, though he didn¡¯t let it go the full hour to get multiple waves at once, it could at least let him postpone things longer.


    The waves came and went, the Bats and Golems started rolling in, and as the number neared 50, Sam wanted to postpone more and more, his skin started itching and he was feeling unwell.


    47. 48, 49.


    He spent long enough with the 49th wave that it almost hit the countdown for the 50th wave, he was strongly considering using some of his time to postpone it more but... he wouldn¡¯t get much rest during that time anyway, and having eaten and ¡®rested¡¯ during the fights, he was as good as he could be physically, mentally was a different question.


    But in the end, he couldn¡¯t win over time, eventually, he would have to face the creature again, at least he was somewhat ready with a working tactic and experience this time.


    [ Wave 50, boss wave ]


    Like before, it first displayed the normal window before it glitched out.


    [ Wave 50; #)¡±!=&¡ê ]


    Sam got the briefest of moments to realize that the corrupted text was different than last time, he didn¡¯t remember exactly but didn¡¯t it start with a percentage?


    The white light deposited a different shape in the room. The creature resembled a writhing mass of fleshy tendrils covered in spiked, fanged mouths that constantly opened and closed in an uncomfortable rhythm. In the centre was a bulbous core which pulsated irregularly, wriggling now and then as a viscous fluid seeped out, covering it in a puss-like substance.


    ¡°Oh... fuck no...¡± Sam didn¡¯t like this at all. Not only was it a new abomination of existence, but it wasn¡¯t the horrifying thing he fought earlier but some new hellspawn. He was so ready to fight the bugs, to get them out of the way immediately, but instead, there was something new, something unknown and disgusting.


    [ Mawed Devourer


    STR: 35


    DEX: 20


    VIT: 50


    SPT: 0


    HP: 1040 / 1040


    Defence: 0


    Damage: Tentacles: 80, Bite: 30, Digest: 20


    Abilities: Regenerating Limbs, Absorption Core. ]


    [ Regenerating Limbs: Tentacles and Tendrils regenerate almost immediately. ]


    [ Absorption Core: The core produces a viscous digestive fluid. ]


    At least this thing had stats he could see, which was good. There was no level but it didn¡¯t matter. Everything else about it was just... bad. Having taken a second to settle after it manifested in the room, the core sank into a rough oval shape, supported by tendrils along its underside as the tentacles stretched out like it was flexing and getting ready.


    The thick substance dripped off the central core, splatting onto the glossy floor with a disgusting flopping splat, almost keeping some of its shapes until it settled on the floor and gooped out. The air coming from this creature smelled like rotten garbage mixed with vomit. It alone was almost enough for Sam to lose his last meal but he couldn¡¯t wait, he needed to take the next second to act.


    Sending his entire swarm of blades towards it, he aimed for the core, it seemed the most likely thing to go for, especially given the regeneration of the tentacles.


    The blades flew forward, but it seemed aware of this, blocking the incoming strikes with its tentacles, the weapons cut through several of them but ended up stopping eventually, well before they hit the core.


    However, these strikes counted towards Static Charge, triggering once as they passed through the writhing flesh, pulsing out and slamming past the core.


    [ Mawed Devourer HP: 968 / 1040 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€? ]


    ¡°Oh...¡± Sam let out a realization, as he considered this the recently cut tentacles grew back out, finding themselves back to full within a second. The only damage it took from that was the pulse from Static Charge, the blades didn¡¯t do anything.


    He needed to hit the core.


    Before he could properly react he had to do his best to dodge the incoming tentacles. The creature had started moving, the tendrils along its bottom side dragging it along the glossy floor with a sickening slick squelching sound as it flailed its many, many tentacles in his way. He managed to stay just out of range for the moment, cutting tentacles to avoid getting hit by them, only to have them regenerate at the end of their swing for another attack.


    Reaching the wall, though curved, it was hard to decide on a way to run. The mass of glossy tentacles was so wide that either way was just as bad as any other, choosing to go to the left he did his best to dodge the incoming attempt to grab him.


    Running at first, he waited for the incoming attack to dodge it, successfully jumping to the side he realised that something had landed on his leg. Before he got a chance to react to the tentacle around his ankle, another landed and coiled around. Pulling his blades in to cut himself free he felt a sharp tug towards the bulbous core. He lost his balance and fell over, which allowed several other tentacles to grab around him.


    Pulling in some of his blades, he started cutting the ones that held him, but as fast as he could cut them, new ones came to take their place. Feeling stings all around his body like someone was dragging tiny sawblades across his skin, he realised that all the tentacles were covered in small, toothy mouths. This was followed by the stinging sensation of something foreign entering the wounds.


    [ HP: 155 / 200 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€?? ]


    [ HP: 125 / 200 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€??? ]


    [ HP: 95 / 200 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€????? ]

 Ch.067 - +1

    The tentacles were getting grabby, doing their best to get a proper hold of him. One of his Psyhands was able to get his last potion and shove it in his mouth.


    [ HP: 195 / 200 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€ ]


    The sense of relief that gave him was soon quelled by a tentacle finding a new place to enter. A wiggling, fleshy invasion tried to find its way through his mouth, but his biting reflex managed to stop it. However, that didn¡¯t stop a glob of the viscous, horribly foul-tasting goop from making its way in before his teeth met. It burned the inside of his mouth, and as the tentacle was now pressing against his mouth, wrapping around his face, his swallow reflex ensured that this fluid made its way down the throat.


    As his mouth was covered, any attempts to vomit failed, forcing him to re-swallow which just worsened the effect, it burned its way down his throat. And to add on top of all of this; the tentacles had a bunch of small mouths with sharp teeth as they held themselves around his head and body. At the same time, he was pulled closer to the core.


    [ HP: 125 / 200 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€??? ]


    Managing to manifest enough willpower to focus on what to do, Sam brought all his weapons and cut the tentacle wrapped around his face, and using a spare Psyhand he pulled it off with a powerful yank. As the small mouths had bit themselves into his skin this was like raking the coursest sandpaper around his face. But he didn¡¯t want it in there a second longer than he had to, it kept wriggling even as Sam threw it away. A new tentacle grew in its place, returning to where it was a second ago.


    The tentacles dragging him closer were cut with more speed and the full swarm of blades, freed him somewhat. The triggered pulse of Static Charge helped here as well. He still needed a moment to get everything off him as the tiny mouths had suctioned onto his skin, still biting as the tentacle slowly went limp and lost its stick.


    [ HP: 115 / 200 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€???? ]


    He hated this creature, his body wanting to expel everything finally managed to vomit, the rest of his earlier meal now leaving him. Now that he was free of it, it was slightly less horrible compared to the Hive, but it only filled him with disgust and hate.


    ¡°I-hh-¡± Trying to speak, wanting to say something to it, he realised that was far from possible. His mouth and throat were strongly affected, the soft tissue being burned by the acid of the fluid. The lingering taste of vomit, blood and whatever puss-like substance that tentacle was covered in lingered in his mouth. There was only one thought in his mind.


    Fuck it.


    Every cut towards the core was blocked by the tentacles, which regenerated a moment after being sliced off. The solution was simple, overwhelming aggression.


    Pulling in all blades to himself, Sam formed a large fan of blades and started spinning them around at great speed in front of him, a smaller collection pointed inwards in its centre it turned into a massive sawblade in front of him with a blender in the middle, or the handles would just make an opening to abuse. He spun it faster, faster, he needed more to close openings. He made it larger, getting the tentacles that tried to make their way around, extending a blade here and there to make the size larger in a pulse to get any longer tentacles trying to slither around. Scraping the blades along the floor enough to barely touch, making sure nothing could get under it.


    The blades whipped around at great speed, creating a wind-shearing sound as they started moving the air around at great speed. The tentacles that tried making their way through this, around this, over or under, were all cut. Like a cucumber through a blender, there was nothing but fluids and gore being sent around, splattering the walls, floor and ceiling.


    Sam walked closer, sending this fan of death towards the core. The regeneration of tentacles couldn¡¯t keep up and were shredded as soon as they came into contact. This let Sam push it into the fleshy core which didn¡¯t stand a chance, it was shredded to death, bursting with viscous fluids and giblets, splattering across the room.


    Tilting the lawnmower of death horizontally, Sam moved it downwards to make sure the thing stopped existing. Though that idea worked marvellously, it also meant that all the grime and goo was going out horizontally. This let Sam take it out completely, but it also covered him completely in the sludge this collection of gore created, some of it acidic.


    [ HP: 105 / 200 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€???? ]


    [ Wave 50; #)¡±!=&¡ê, complete, choose reward:


    5x Random Box


    5x Sustenance


    5x Time extension until the next wave.


    The next wave is in 1 minute. ]


    ¡°Exh--¡± Sam wanted to extend the time, and though he couldn¡¯t say the words it seemed to work out. The time was extended by an hour, giving him valuable time to calm down.


    It didn¡¯t take many seconds for his guts to churn and empty themselves again, his stomach empty it was just remnants of blood, stomach acid and the thing the tentacle was covered in, it burned through his throat on the way, the damage to his body, though his HP wasn¡¯t at the worst the wounds themselves felt horrible as his stomach muscles cramped and tried to empty everything.


    This was excruciating, he needed a potion, at least that would take the pain. He started to use the reward windows to produce Random Boxes and opened them as soon as they landed until he got a health potion.


    Having to open 9 boxes, he finally got a health potion, as well as 16 crystals, he could add those to the pile later, and drinking the health potion as soon as it manifested filled out his health and closed all his wounds. Physically, as far as his wounds were considered, he felt great. Physically and mentally based on the thing that happened to his body a few minutes ago... he felt horrible.


    His mind forced him to think of other things, perhaps as a defence mechanism given the things he has experienced lately, he started thinking of the spinning blade swarm he made. It was not only ¡®neat¡¯, but it was highly practical. Since he can swing each weapon faster than humanly possible due to the lack of danger, restriction of joints and surprisingly perfect control over the movement like that, it turned into both defensive and offensive.


    Sure, guns could make it through, the Psyhands weren¡¯t that fast, but spears or thrown things probably wouldn¡¯t, he was unsure about arrows but all things considered it was amazing and would just become better the more blades he had. Not only was it good both offensively and defensively, but it made quite the sound so it would probably work to instill terror as well.


    He could test it on the weaklings if the thing reset again.


    For now, he just sat there, staring at nothing as his mind tried desperately to think of anything that wasn¡¯t the two last large events of his life. He felt sick, though his body was healed, he could still feel his body covered in the slick, viscous fluid... He wanted a shower... He just wanted out...


    Not exactly having an appetite, his empty stomach demanded something to work with, he had used a lot of energy lately and the requirements were simple. Turning in a reward for some food and drink, he forced it down the best he could, holding back and throwing up as something just entered his mouth, almost feeling like he had to relearn how to eat for a few moments. In the end, after a lot of forcing and leaving this place mentally, imagining anywhere better, he managed to slowly consume the sandwich and drink some water.


    His stomach had stopped growling at him, but everything else felt horrible. He still didn¡¯t know how to win this thing but if this was going to keep happening, he needed to do something about it... He didn¡¯t get any XP so he didn¡¯t get more powerful, the only way that could happen was using the Random Boxes, but wasting those didn¡¯t sound smart as that was his source of downtime and sustenance. But...


    If this process were going to keep this pattern, he would be fighting cannon fodder for a while, then some enemies barely a danger due to only damaging him if they crit, and some actual enemies before another eldritch nightmare kicks in...


    Relaxing as best he could for the remainder of the hour, he mentally got ready for a new abomination to show itself, and that the numbers would keep climbing until he was done, but based on the pattern so far he assumed it would glitch itself back to 1.


    The timer finally hit zero and the wave window popped up.


    [ Wave 51 ]


    [ Wave %1 ]


    [ Wave #¡±¡ì1 ]


    [ Wave 1 ]


    Just like last time, the number glitched out and reset to one, Sam sighed, both in relief but also in annoyance before flinging his head back, looking upwards and extending his arms in an I told you so expression.


    This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.¡°Fucking called it!¡±


    The first wave spawned in, a single level 1 Goblin. The poor creature had zero chance, before it took its second breath it got a sword in its forehead, doing about 8 times its total health.


    Sam got up and started pacing around the room, it wasn¡¯t easy to see details in this room due to the way it was made, the only illumination was the glowing crystals embedded in the glossy surfaces. It lit up things plenty to see but it was all in a dull red colour, like emergency lights. It made seeing details surprisingly hard and seeing colours harder. The only way he knew what colours things were was that like many other kids, he had a flashlight you could change slides in front of, one making the light red, so he had played with this a lot when young.


    As the second wave came, and went, he noticed that though all the monsters and their stuff disappeared before the next wave came, the damage done to the room remained. The surfaces were stone hard, but this meant that anything abrasive or strong enough could leave a mark, and Player weapons were especially strong enough. Just seeing that his weapons hadn¡¯t dulled yet, even though the blade fan he used against the tentacle ball made some considerable damage to the floor around it.


    At least it was good that the crystals didn¡¯t stop glowing even though they were scratched and cut, he was fine for now as far as lighting was, and even if they disappeared he could use his phone, he had enough Aether crystals to keep his phone running probably forever.


    Pacing around, trying to find something new in the room, he kept remotely slaughtering anything that dared to come close, but he didn¡¯t actively hunt them down, wanting to postpone the next 50th wave, he let it happen more organically. As something came close to him he shredded it out of existence, which worked fine as far as a threat went for the others. At least giving him some more time before they tried their luck.


    This lasted for quite a time, it wasn¡¯t until the 20-numbered waves started that he decided that, at least for now, he couldn¡¯t find anything interesting. The walls sounded solid everywhere, he could scratch and damage the surface, but nothing more. He couldn¡¯t get the gems out as if he dug out pieces of them, the pieces stopped glowing but the rest of the gem in the wall still glowed its red colour. Changing tactics he tried to look at his stats again, wanting to find out if there was something he could affect on it.


    Since this was a game to the Entities, and everything was somewhat structured as such, perhaps he had been considering this wrong. He was trying to force values to change, even going as far as to wish or ask the system to change things for him. But perhaps he should treat it as the game it was and assume he had super-user access. It was somewhat like using cheat codes or the console commands in certain games, perhaps he just needed to find out the correct code, or what metaphorical button opened the console.


    Having sat back down within range of the spawning area he was staring at his stats again. Rather than affecting it directly, like everyone might be wishing, he tried thinking about things like a kid with cheat codes or some IT guy with superuser access.


    The waves didn¡¯t stop coming, but they had become routine by now, sitting still and looking at his screens he had his weapons spin around him, so within his blade-dome, he was relatively safe from the small fry at least.


    [ Spt: 36 ¡ú 37 ]


    A smirk grew on Sam¡¯s face; he had figured it out, though as he tried to do it again it failed, souring his expression. The way he had to do it was surprisingly simple, but also kind of dumb. Since everything in the System was controlled mentally, he had to mentally imagine himself as ¡®the Ascendant with admin privileges¡¯ and then command, not request, the ¡®console¡¯ to change something for him. He didn¡¯t know if this was the correct way to do it or if it was just some weird metaphor that let his mind and the System talk together to make things happen, but he couldn¡¯t figure out why it didn¡¯t let him do it again.


    He had increased his Spirit by 1 point, it was good this edit didn¡¯t happen on his Strength or something, sadly it didn¡¯t go more than 1 as he was now on an odd number, though it scaled his weight and health, it didn¡¯t give him extra hands as that was based on his Energy, which happened at every even number, it also boosted the damage done by Static Charge a little. It was still an improvement and a great find!


    Now he just needed to find out how to do... more. +1 was huge, as it was a free level in a sense. But, something was blocking a second time, He tried doing the same to other stats, other values, anything and everything, and even tried to swap specific words in descriptions to make edits to skills but nothing worked. Was there a cooldown?


    Struggling with this new problem, he at least didn¡¯t have any problems with the incoming waves. He had stopped caring if the waves overlapped, since everyone was severely lacking ranged attacks he was quite safe at the moment. However, there was the odd distraction as something decided to charge him, only for Sam to be covered in blood and gore shortly after.


    A shower was sorely needed, but at this point, he was so covered in random shit that a little more didn¡¯t change anything. For now, he was just happy that he managed to use the abilities the Entity said he had, though he wondered how far this could stretch once he properly got the hang of it.


    It had been a few hours since he fought the tentacle ball, and as wave 46 came and went, he was wondering if he should rest now or wait. He was feeling fine, but he didn¡¯t know what was going to happen in a few waves. He was out of potions so it was probably a good idea to stock up on resources, he had hoarded quite a collection of Reward windows. He had used some for food, time and Boxes to get potions since he was now on his third loop of almost 50 waves, which had a total of 150 boxes. Though he didn¡¯t care how many he had used, he had plenty left and would most likely get plenty more.


    Weirdly, this was super lucrative but... he¡¯d just rather go back and grind normally, he didn¡¯t like these corrupted boss fights.


    ¡°Extend.¡± He used a reward window to refund that hour he just got, and started opening random boxes. His goal was to have at least two, perhaps three health potions, whatever else he got was just bonuses.


    He had to open a staggering 49 Random boxes until he got the third Health Potion. Feeling dumber and dumber as time went he was kind of miffed that until that third potion dropped, he got 3 mana potions as well as 83 more Aether Crystals... Another surprise was that he got a weapon on his 49th box as well.


    It was a two-handed sword, including the leather-wrapped handle, that reached up to Sam¡¯s chin from the floor. The dual-edged blade was about as wide as his fist was thick made of an obsidian-like material having an almost translucent feel as he looked through its reflective surface.


    [ Obsidian Warblade - D-high


    Damage: 80


    +10% critical damage multiplier ]


    This... was an amazing weapon. He knew that two-handed weapons were stronger than daggers of the same rank, but even compared to the Moonblade, which was a similarly ranked weapon, it was double the damage. Comparatively, it also required both hands compared to the Moonblade¡¯s one hand, so... it somewhat checked out.


    Trying to lift it with his Psyhands, he found that he could almost lift it with 6 hands, but he needed the 7th to be able to lift and wield it. This brought up the following question; was it worth swapping out 7 bottom-tier daggers with this one sword?


    Pure numbers, it was better, 7x 5dmg daggers didn¡¯t even reach half of the sword¡¯s damage, but 7 daggers could be used to trigger almost 1.5 Static Charges if spread out. Even if not spread out, assuming that all of them are on the same target, adding together his new boosted Static Charge damage and the 7 daggers, the large weapon lost out.


    Pondering this for a brief moment he spent some time cleaning up the hoard of Aether Crystals, piling them up in the hallway where he landed originally, with the other ones. Once he was done moving them all, which took a few minutes, he had come to the simple conclusion that, against a single, or few targets, using the sword was worth it as the other weapons would trigger Static Charge, against a bunch of smaller targets it might be better to use the other weapons to spread out more.


    Lucky for him, the timer was running out for the 47th wave. Some bats and Golems were coming in, sheathing 7 of his small daggers he properly grabbed the new weapon; this could be interesting.


    As the last Golem fell, leaving only one bat, Sam was happy with the sword. It did make it harder to multi-trigger Static Charge, but for fewer targets, it was performing quite well. Taking out the bats in one swing was also strangely fun, it still took a few hits for the Golems but they were so slow that it didn¡¯t even matter in this case.


    Though, had it not been for the AOE pulses and a few mobs at once, it could have become a problem for him. So, weirdly, he was specifically kitted for this kind of thing. He started mixing up his attacks, swapping the use of multiple daggers or the Warblade, using his normal hands to hold the non-active weapons for easier swapping proved to be a surprisingly practical tactic.


    In his glee of testing out new things, he missed the end of the 49th wave.


    [ Wave 50, boss wave ]


    [ Wave 50, &¡±#¡è@]


    As before, to Sam¡¯s eternal annoyance, the information glitched out again and... a new seemingly random selection of characters came out... This was going to be annoying.

 Ch.068 - Wave "1"

    The white light faded, leaving behind Sam¡¯s new target.


    An armoured, towering emancipated warrior stood before him. Its armour looked like it was made of twisted bone and sinew. On second glance, in the poor lighting, it seemed that wasn¡¯t the case. The skin, body, and armour were all an exoskeleton of sorts. It seemed like it was filled with a dark, swirling mist that puffed out through small holes and openings with flames, illuminating it for a brief second. The empty eyesockets on its bald head had an eerie red glow.


    [ Echo of Rage


    STR: 35


    DEX: 10


    VIT: 40


    SPT: 0


    HP: 1050 / 1050


    Defence: 10


    Damage: 90


    Abilities: Adaptive Defense, Vengeful Feedback, Wrathful Aura. ]


    [ Adaptive Defence:


    Each time you take damage, temporarily dramatically increases resistance towards that damage type.


    -Can stack up to three resistances. ]


    [ Vengeful Feedback: Any critical hits reverberate to the attacker, possibly stunning or weakening them. ]


    [ Wrathful Aura:


    An aura that slows and drains the strength of enemies. The closer an enemy gets to you, the more it affects them ]


    ¡°Oh... no...¡± Sam commented, specifically when seeing two of its Abilities.


    He knew his main source of damage was cutting weapons, theoretically piercing weapons if he stabs with them, but that¡¯s two... and Adaptive Defence looked bad...


    Not wanting to risk waiting too long, Sam sent out his swarm, using his new sword as it was a singular target, and he was glad to see the result.


    The Shadow fang triggered, applying a 1 second blind, the Warblade also landed a critical hit, increasing its 80 base damage to 176, and several other weapons landed a critical hit. The Bleeding Edge and several smaller blades missed, sliding off its armour.


    There were also more than five hits, so this triggered Static Charge as expected.


    [Echo of Rage HP: 504 / 1050


    Defence: 10


    Defence vs cutting: 1000


    Defence vs electricity: 1000 ]


    Sam¡¯s victorious feeling of doing half its health in one attack was very short-lived, he felt a powerful wave of energy hit his body like an electric punch locking up all his body¡¯s muscles, he couldn¡¯t move, he had problems looking at anything, not able to properly move his eyes, his chest seized up barely being able to breathe in short gasps.


    [ Failed to resist Vengeful Feedback; Stunned. ]


    He was so focused on everything else, and the Adaptive Defence that he missed a crucial detail. The monster stepped closer to him, the blind had already worn off. Getting into range it made a powerful and wide sideways slam with its long arms, landing true in Sam¡¯s side. Its clawed hand pierced his side, his neck, his arm and his thigh as the momentum and force of the attack lifted him off his feet, sending him flying. Landing on the ground several steps away he tumbled across the glossy floor before he hit the curved wall.


    [ Armour, Defence 50 has lowered the damage. Critical hit. ]


    [ HP: 70 / 205 ¨€¨€¨€??????? ]


    Sam was able to move after this, barely, he was still sluggish, and weak, it was hard to get back on his feet, both from the damage affecting him and the stunning and weakening effect that hadn¡¯t entirely left him yet.


    Using all his strength he managed to get a potion out of his pocket and shove it in his mouth.


    [ HP: 170 / 205 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€?? ]


    His idea was to attack the creature at the same time as his Psyhands, as they only needed mental control, but it seemed that the weakness affecting him also affected the stability of his connection with them. He used all his focus and energy to drink that potion.


    The creature was stepping after him, and now that his mind was more aware of things he could feel the oppressive aura that emanated from it, each step it took closer had an almost suffocating pressure that increased as it got closer.


    Trying to move his Psyhands only had limited effect, and he could barely move, but as the creature wound up for another attack, Sam remembered, his shoes had a skill attached!


    [ Flash Step Activated ]


    Triggering his shoes, his whole body blinked out of existence only to reappear on the other side of the monster. It wasn¡¯t the longest distance but it was enough to avoid getting hit.


    The creature looked around for him, using a few valuable seconds to get its bearings, during which Sam did his best to lift his weapons and attack, but the debuff on him was still too strong, he could barely get his weapons lifted by the time it saw him.


    Doing the best he could to avoid getting hit only failed, rather than swiping at him it picked him up with its long, slender fingers around his body, and slammed him into the floor. He had no chance of resisting.


    [ Armour, Defence 50 has lowered the damage. Critical hit. ]


    [ HP: 40 / 205 ¨€¨€???????? ]


    This was bad, another one of those and he¡¯s dead. Taking two of his daggers out of sheaths on his body, he stabbed them into the hand of the creature, this was enough for it to let Sam go and though he fell to the floor he managed to land well enough that he didn¡¯t hurt himself.


    Using the time to chug another potion, his health rose to 140 as he started limp-running around, feeling that the restrictions on him were lowering considerably. Though he still felt weak, sluggish and quite horrible it was somewhat lessening.


    Realising that he was regaining control over his Psyhands was the biggest relief he could get at the moment. Considering his next action he only had one, he needed to gamble on taking it out with some stabs as it would be a different damage type.


    Reaching out he picked up as many weapons as he was able to, and sent them forward in a stab, making sure it would trigger Cluster strike. He felt the familiar pull and push of the weapons as he did his best to not critically hit.


    The attempt in not critically hitting meant that he had to focus weapons to hit seemingly non-vital areas, this caused a large collection of them to miss, but at least none of them critically hit!


    [Echo of Rage HP: 194 / 1050


    Defence: 10


    Defence vs cutting: 1000


    Defence vs electricity: 1000


    Defence vs piercing: 1000]


    ¡°.... Fuck...¡± Sam commented to himself as he saw that the damage he did wasn¡¯t enough to take it out, and he was out of damage modes. He didn¡¯t dare to punch it, not that his punches would go through the Defence rating, and his Force Pulses didn¡¯t do damage.


    Sam started running to keep away, the creature was surprisingly fast, but now that he was out of damage modes he needed to figure out something. Its vitality was too high for the Venom Toothpicks to do anything, and he didn¡¯t have anything besides pointy blades to use. As he was thinking and running, he dropped some daggers to use Force Pulses on its eyes and hands to at least keep it busy, it helped him dodge the incoming attacks enough that the glancing strikes were handled by his armour, but he didn¡¯t have much he could do but wait for the temporary timer on the Defences to run out.


    Using his running around to drink his last potion, he filled out his health again, feeling at least a bit better about it.


    This lasted a short while until the creature changed its approach. Rather than following Sam around in circles, it walked into the centre of the room and started approaching Sam that way, this made it considerably harder to run away, and its exceptional reach made Sam¡¯s dodges almost useless. It also didn¡¯t help that whenever it got closer, the suffocating aura made it harder to move around or dodge, having to use his Force Blast to attack incoming attacks or its eyes, or just using the Psyhands to push a little, helping his dodging ever so slightly.


    ¡°When¡¯s that fucking timer gonna run out?!¡± Sam barked at his opponent. This was very annoying, he didn¡¯t have any other form of damage, he had tried to ¡®punch¡¯ with the Psyhands before but since he didn¡¯t have any attribute calculation for damage they did zero. His fists would at least do one damage each but... that wouldn¡¯t get through the Defence, so...


    The monster came closer again, the aura made dodging and running problematic, letting it hit with its wide swing again, at least not landing a critical hit but it still hurt quite a lot.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    [ Armour, Defence 50 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 165 / 205 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€?? ]


    Trying his luck for an amazing attack, he sent forth his swarm of blades in a stabbing motion, with four misses and zero critical hits as he was careful about that, zero damage got through and... he suspected that the countdown on the damage was probably reset...


    Doing his best to get some distance, his mind spun, thinking of everything he could do. He already used his flash step shoes, even if they weren¡¯t used that would only be once. The rest he had was surprisingly stealth-focused. The only skill that could aid in this case, the monster had resistance towards, and the only two damage types he had available it was also resistant against.


    As the oppressive aura made another dodge fail, even with his speed-boosting items, he took another 40 damage from it but had an idea.


    [ Armour, Defence 50 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 125 / 205 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€???? ]


    But, he did have a fourth damage type, every weapon had a pommel, handle or at least back-side, he just needed to get that through! It might not damage as much but that didn''t matter, the monster¡¯s Adaptability could only hold three resistances!


    His newfound motivation changed everything, turning all his weapons around he tried striking it with the backs or sides of his weapons. The sudden movement and twist around made it a bit harder to hit, as the weapons weren¡¯t designed for this their delivery of force wasn¡¯t exactly as it should be, and this affected the damage considerably... for the weapons that hit.


    [Echo of Rage HP: 104 / 1050


    Defence: 10


    Defence vs electricity: 1000


    Defence vs piercing: 1000


    Defence vs blunt: 1000 ]


    ¡°HAH! Get fucked!¡± Sam shouted out in joy a second before the creature managed to land a punch, it had only been swiping and slapping at him through the whole fight so he didn¡¯t expect a punch, the poor lighting in the room also made it hard to see properly.


    But, the cutting resistance was gone!


    Bringing up his whole swarm, ignoring to avoid critical hits or not, he sent it forward, he just wanted to end it!


    9 misses, all of his named weapons including the Warblade missed, and 5 critical hits landed which reverberated back and stunned Sam entirely... again. But, the total of 19 hits was enough!


    The monster let out a weird hissing shriek as the mist-like entity within it dissipated into the air before the armour it wore fell to the ground.


    Sam wanted to rejoice as the victory window popped up, but he couldn¡¯t move, he struggled with breathing. Mentally choosing to extend the time luckily worked and an hour was added to the time, letting him at least attempt to sigh in relief.


    Standing like that in complete silence for a while, the effect started fading and he could breathe more easily, got more control over his Psyhands and eventually was back to himself again. Though this monster wasn¡¯t as... uncomfortable, as the other two, he was potentially the most dangerous.


    Had Sam known what he knew now about the resistance, it would have been different, he could have just hit him with a full volley, let him get the resistance, then split up the second wave of attacks between blunt and mostly stabbing, kicking the cutting one off the board and taking him out in the following round. It might not have been that perfect but it would have gone better.


    He thought about it before, and it¡¯s a well-known fact but; Knowledge is power.


    Finally choosing to sit down, he used a reward window to get some food and water, it was bland but kept him going. At the same time, he wondered what the point of all of this was. It felt like a normal wave-surviving event, if it was winnable it would be in the form of ¡®survive 100 waves¡¯ or something, at least having a predetermined goal. Here he had nothing, he was just fighting because he was attacked.


    Having eaten his bland sandwich and drank some water, he got up and looked around a bit, specifically at his last target. He was hoping to find some of his armour usable, but also that it wouldn¡¯t be usable as it was creepy and disgusting. To his pleasant surprise, it wasn¡¯t!


    The appraisal skill just listed it as the corpse of Echo of Rage, all stats and abilities zeroed out, it was still just as unsettling to look at, as the face, skin and... whole body were there, but looking through the holes in the body around and it was just some weird void, not just dark or empty, but even with the flashlight on his phone he couldn¡¯t see the ¡®other side of the inside¡¯ through it.


    Dropping the pieces back to the floor, he started walking around the room as he went back to his logic of wanting potions before the next 50th wave fight. His aim was back towards the corridor as he was probably going to get a lot of Aether Crystals, might as well have them drop in there so he didn¡¯t have to clean up again.


    This happened a bit faster this time, but with less fancy rewards. The 12th box he opened gave him the second potion, so that¡¯d have to work for now. He didn¡¯t get anything else of any significant value but he did get 22 Aether Crystals, which was shoved into the evergrowing pile in the end of the hallway. Wondering if there was something he could use them for, except very inefficient charging of his phone, but he didn¡¯t think so.


    The TAC guide application explained some more about them, but it wasn¡¯t anything practical, he hoped they would explode or something if shattered, but... though they could absolutely shatter and break, that just ruined their energy storage without any effects save a shattered crystal, it was worth less than glass in that form.


    Letting out a deep sigh he sat down in his little hallway, the timer ticking down more and more, wondering how many times he was going to have to go through this again. What was the victory condition, was there even one or was this just for some sadistic pleasure of the Entities? He wanted to get out, he wanted to return the favour of the shit they had thrown at humanity... no.. not humanity, he wasn¡¯t that good-natured, he wanted revenge for the shit that happened to him, humanity¡¯s issues were secondary goal. He wanted to shout things to anyone who might be watching but... If they were watching, being called out and confirming that he knows was probably a bad idea.


    As strange as it sounded, he was strangely ¡®comfortable¡¯ with the thought of being watched at all times, it wasn¡¯t right, and it was creepy as shit, but he managed to accept that easier than he expected. Having spent time in the shower and intimate moments without considering it, so he was at least handling it relatively well? Or perhaps that was a coping mechanism, but it didn¡¯t matter.


    Fatigue was creeping in as the timer was running out, he had 14 minutes left and he realised that he¡¯d rather just sleep for a day before continuing.


    ¡°Expand time, 10 hours.¡± The countdown changed from the remaining 14 min to 10 hours and 14 min, as he mentally accepted 10 reward windows into Time he set an alarm for 10 hours. His phone had plenty of power left, and he hadn¡¯t even come close to consuming the one Aether Crystal he used to test the charging with, a crystal of that size and grade should last him quite a while according to the Guide app.


    For now, he decided to just lay down and go to sleep, going as far as to put on some music on his phone, letting it echo across the smooth walls as he relaxed, placing all his weapons a bit away in the hallway he drifted off.


    Waking up to the sound of the alarm and vibration, he turned it off with a limp arm and barely open eyes. Though the brightness of the screen was at the minimum it still felt fucking bright in this dim room. Parts of his still-sleeping mind looked around for signs of Dia, having gotten used to her presence when he woke up but, there was only the silent hallway, the pile of Aether Crystals and the promise of more shit to come.


    Sitting up, he realised two things. The first was that he was hungry again, so using one of the reward windows for some sustenance handled that, but the other was a bit weirder, he didn¡¯t feel like he had to go to the toilet at all... that hadn¡¯t felt like something he needed to do since he came here. But, further thinking he realised that he never seemed to have this feel within dungeons, but before he assumed this was due to a time and focus thing but... now he¡¯d been in here for a while, and it should have happened by now. Parts of him imagined smearing the walls with excrement as a kind of in-your-face to the Entities, but this was fine.


    Getting up after he had eaten, the remaining time before the claimed Wave 51 was nearing its end. He was fed up with this loop, he hated it, but he didn¡¯t want to just give up either, he was going to push on, get through this shit, no matter what kind of nightmares they throw at him he was going to pay them back when he got to the top.


    Exiting the hallway into the main room, he realised that perhaps it was a good idea to somehow keep track of how many rounds he had been through... in case he was here for a while. Taking one of the daggers he carved three tally marks on the wall near where it hallway exits into the main hall. He¡¯d just update that every reset and see how that goes.


    But for now, he sat back down in the rough middle of the room, waiting for things to spawn and focusing on trying to find out how the Ascendant thing worked, he wanted more numbers changed for the better, especially since shit in here didn¡¯t give him XP.


    He stared at his statistics screen, trying the same roundabout way to augment the number as before.


    [ Wave 51 ]


    [ Wave %1 ]


    [ Wave #¡±¡ì1 ]


    [ Wave 1 ]

 Ch.069 - Hundreds

    Sam woke up to the alarm like he had done many times before. He was sleeping out in the main room, using an Aether Crystal as a pillow. The room had considerable scratches, damages, pits and parts dug out of the walls. A few of the crystals had entirely been removed from the walls and were surprisingly still glowing. The holes they came from looked like they had been dug out over considerable time with something small.


    Scratching his scruffy beard, he lifted his dirty phone and turned on mirror mode, using the selfie camera with a white bright border of light around it to work as a lit-up mirror, he could see himself in it and inspected his face.


    ¡°Good morning, beautiful, how¡¯s it going?¡± He smiled and faked an ¡®oh you¡¯ reaction at himself in his simple mirror.


    He had gotten himself a few new things since the start of the fourth loop of Waves. His hands had three more rings, and he had a surprisingly colourful and feminine feather hairpiece fastened to his hair on his left side.


    [ Luminous band - C: Increases perception in low-light conditions ]


    [ Ironclad Ring, C, Increases Defence +5 ]


    [ Chalice Signet, D, 10% chance to absorb 5 Health on killing an enemy ]


    [ Windwalker¡¯s Feather Signet, C, 10% Dodge chance ]


    ¡°I think it¡¯s time for some... maintenance.¡± He spoke to himself in the mirror before he changed his smiling expression. ¡°But you just said I was beautiful!¡± His tone changed to sounding almost insulted.


    ¡°Oh, but you can be even more beautiful!¡± He pointed at himself before his smile came back.


    Lifting one of his daggers from the floor he used it to shave. It wasn¡¯t clean but rather a patchy and bad job, but he got it under control if nothing else.


    ¡°Ah, there we go.¡± He smiled and pointed two finger guns at himself, fake shooting them before using a Psyhand to lock the screen of his phone and turn off the light.


    ¡°Aww.¡± He sounded honestly sad to see himself go away as he extended his Psyhand holding the phone into the hallway, past the wall with hundreds of tally marks, the marks thickening as they went on before there was just a series of deep smashes and damages to the wall. The phone was placed against the wall on top of an Aether Crystal, working as a wireless charger as he put it onto the gem.


    Next to the charging station was the bend further into the hallway where thousands of Aether Crystals had been stacked surprisingly neatly, and near it was a small pile of unused gear with armour, weapons and accessories.


    ¡°Five, four, three, two.¡± He counted down with the information window explaining that Wave 51 was happening in a few seconds, tilting his head back and forth in beat with the countdown and dramatically waving his hands back and forth.


    ¡°And one, and glitch, aaaaaand... Welcome!¡± Timing every step perfectly with the process of the window counting down, glitching and changing to Wave 1. His welcome was in perfect beat with the manifestation of a singular goblin, who looked around confused before spotting Sam in the dim red lighting.


    Sam picked up a large two-handed war-axe, it looked like a robust weapon, designed for brutal encounters. Having darkened steel for the axe head, having a large volcano-like vein coming out of the central part and splitting up into several smaller veins extending along the blade. Having a small spike on the top and a small counterweight on the back, the handle was wrapped with red leather.


    He picked it up with his Psyhands and handed it to his normal hands. He took a stance and lifted the sword around his back over his shoulder like he was getting ready to play baseball and he was the batter. The goblin stopped with a confused expression on his face, but as he stopped Sam reached out with a collection of Psyhands and lifted him.


    The goblin shrieked and tried to cut and attack whatever invisible force was lifting him.


    ¡°And in the rough central corner, we have the ball, can he hit this, it has an odd shape?!¡±


    Shouting to himself in an announce-like voice the Goblin started flying towards Sam at great speed, moving up, down and to the sides at an irregular speed, but as it came within range of Sam he swung his large axe like a bat and cleaved the goblin in two through the chest, leaving behind tines of electricity and a burst of fire as it passed through the small creature¡¯s body. Dropping his corpse as soon as the damage was done, splatting both onto the scuffed floor as they rolled limply away, leaving a trail of blood and guts.


    [ Ember War-Axe - Low-D Rank


    Two-handed Axe.


    Damage: 120


    Fire Damage: +10 ]


    [ Thunderous Blow - D


    Adds electric damage to each attack equal to 1/5th of the weapon base damage. ]


    ¡°And he made it! The crowd goes wild!¡± He flung both his hands into the air, letting go of the axe which remained hovering due to the five needed Psyhands as he celebrated, mimicking the roar of a crowd.


    It didn¡¯t take long for the second wave of two goblins to spawn. As soon as they manifested, one of them was picked up with all his Psyhands and slammed into the floor repeatedly, stopping screaming and moving after a few bashes. The other looked panicked at his friend before he was picked up in his ally¡¯s stead before he was pulled close to Sam, hovering in the air, helpless.


    ¡°Do you see that?!¡± Sam points to the side. In his own view, he¡¯s pointing at his Player status screen, not considering that his helpless victim can¡¯t see it. ¡°I don¡¯t know why, but I can use the thing now!¡± Sam commented as he looked at the numbers displaying his stats now being different.


    Rather than being just a list of information, words, letters, and numbers, the fields were editable, but not all of them. His Str, Dex and Vit were marked, but only the second digit on his Spt. And in the back of his mind, he knew he couldn¡¯t just swap out numbers, like 4 for 9 or something. No, he could only increase it with +1, which was kind of annoying.


    ¡°You see that, Johnny?!¡± Sam pulled the Goblin closer, squishing the side of his face close to his own, forcing ¡®Johnny¡¯ to stare at the nonexistent screen before continuing. ¡°Boop! And just like that, my Spirit is now 40!¡± He was glad that though only the last digit was marked, his Spt was 39 before he moved it and it turned to 40 instead of 30, he would have been very sad if it was the latter but as it was a +1 value it seemed to work out!


    Suddenly moving them apart and sporting an insulted face towards the Goblin, Sam scoffed.


    ¡°The fuck do you mean ¡®it is kind of shit¡¯?!¡± Changing his tone to a mocking repeating ¡®this is what you sound like¡¯ kind of tone in the second half of the sentence. ¡°I don¡¯t know how to do more than just this yet. Do you have any idea how long it took me to get the shit to even display like this?!¡±


    Sam looked angrily at the poor Goblin, who was nothing but terrified and confused. Shouting and trying to get loose from the invisible grasp on its body and limbs.


    ¡°You know what, I think you¡¯re just envious of my amazing powers! Trying to talk smack because I can ¡®only change the ones¡¯.¡± Again ending with a mocking tone Sam waved his hand upwards like he was swatting a fly, which had the goblin fly upwards and his head creaming against the hard, smooth ceiling. Dying instantly.


    Letting go of its corpse it fell to the floor with a limp thud. ¡°That¡¯ll show you, Johnny. I thought you could see how amazing this is, but I suppose you were like the others. Just... A dungeon mob.¡± His eyes teared up a little, Sam wasn¡¯t sure if it was in pity for Johnny¡¯s lacking intelligence or if it was that the only interaction he had was with the not-properly-sapient Dungeon monsters.


    The next wave spawned a minute later, Sam Psyhand grabbed one of them and used him as a weapon to bat the other ones to death, it didn¡¯t take many hits before the victory screen popped up. Sam¡¯s expression was the same kind of bored as someone watching the dust settle on a shelf.


    This process of mindless violence and ¡®entertainment¡¯ happened again and again, to the point where he wasn¡¯t even looking and just timed his blades to hit the target as soon as it manifested. The lighter enemies like the goblins and bats were flung around like ragdolls, playing with how to damage them and how to fight, seeming barely interested or talking to himself in a weird third-person way. His eyes were glassed over like he was barely mentally present.


    The waves he wanted to be over fast disappeared instantly after spawning, the ones where he toyed around with his targets took longer and were often quite brutal. Eventually wave 50 came along.


    [ Wave 50, boss wave ]


    [ Wave 50; %!(¡è#¡±! ]


    ¡°Oh, you again.¡± He smiled almost as if he greeted an old friend before it had even spawned.


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    The white light pulsed and deposited a large creature made up of tens of thousands, if not millions of bugs. It clicked and clacked as it settled on the scuffed floors.


    ¡°Clickety clackety to you as well, Mr Clickyboi!¡± Sam smiled back at it, though with dull, dead eyes with lacked interest and mental presence.


    The creature sent an insect projectile towards the barely mentally present Sam, who disappeared and reappeared to the side.


    [ Flash Step activated ]


    As soon as he landed, he pulled a few of the named weapons towards himself, through the Hive in front of him. This not only did damage to it directly with some electric and fiery aftereffects, but it pulsed Static Charge enough to spread out a bunch of insects that clacked against the irregular floor. As they started running back to the main body, Sam dropped the second part of his plan. Letting go of the larger, heavier, weapons he grabbed as many smaller ones as he could hold before he teamed them up in collections of 5, and started attacking the insects with Cluster Strike. This overkilled the individual insects something absurd, but that wasn¡¯t the goal, the goal was to trigger as many Static Charges as he could, and so he did.


    The area became a carpet bombing of electric discharges, 40 blades, most his but some borrowed by goblins, paired up in 8 groups of five moved around, stabbing at the bugs again and again, triggering more and more exploding waves of electrical force. He made sure they were all within range of the main body, each doing 80 damage, and with 8 groups per ¡®wave¡¯ it didn¡¯t take many seconds to obliterate this encounter.


    ¡°Oh... that was faster than expected.¡± Sam commented on the shredded pile of bugs as he dropped the shit-tier goblin daggers and picked up his proper weapons, sheathing his low-level daggers to have them ready. ¡°You lasted at least... I think... Five seconds or something longer the last time we did this.¡±


    As the victory screen opened again, he simply moved it to the side, not caring in the slightest, rather finding interest in squatting down and picking up a pile of bugs with his Psyhands, pouring them back down.


    ¡°For being so fucked up, I do like the shimmer in your carapaces, to the right collector I¡¯m sure you¡¯d be considered pretty.¡±


    Getting up, his face twisted in anger and disgust he started stomping on the pile of bugs. ¡°But I still think you can fuck off back to the asshole you came from!¡±


    Stopping the stomping after a few solid seconds he inhaled deeply and exhaled. ¡°And five... three... two...¡± He waved his hands back and forth like a conductor, almost like he was setting the countdown pace.


    ¡°Aaaand 51... aaand glitch... and one!¡± Again in perfect timing with the happenings it all reset back to one, and as the first goblin spawned Sam Psyhand pulled it close to him and proceeded to vent all his anger out as he punched the poor thing to death with his bare fists, holding the Goblin helpless in the air in front of him.


    The next waves happened just like the ones before, he either blitzed through them in seconds or vented his frustration and anger on them in some horrifying ¡®entertainment¡¯ way. The only thing making the next 50th wave take so long to happen was the 1-minute countdown to the next. He would pace back and forth, shouting obscenities or talking to objects, sitting down and waiting, petting an Arcane Crystal like it was a small cat, cooing to it like it was some living creature. Only to fling it into whatever creature spawned next.


    [ Wave 50, boss wave ]


    [ Wave 50; ))!¡±%&# ]


    ¡°Welcome, Spiderwoman!¡± He made an elaborate bow as the glowing light landed a massive, half-humanoid, half-arachnid creature. Her torso looked like an amalgamation of shattered faces and screaming mouths, moving in an unnatural lurching way. The bottom part was that of a massive spider, sleek black exoskeleton like a black widow.


    As soon as ¡®she¡¯ could move, a bunch of small spiders started running off her body, down her legs and towards Sam, who expertly handled it by triggering Static Charges on demand.


    ¡°And three... two... one...¡± Right on cue, he stepped to the side, dodging a jet of fluid from the creature in front of him, that hardened as soon as it hit the wall, becoming a spider''s silk-like structure.


    ¡°You know, for being such a pain in the ass, as long as I don¡¯t cut your threads and heal you, you¡¯re not that problematic.¡± Sam commented dryly and monotone as his swarm of blades came down in pulses, cutting into her and breaking her exoskeleton, focusing on her legs, hindering her mobility before focusing on the large hind section of the spider part.


    It didn¡¯t take many seconds before she fell, then only a few more for her to stop moving and the victory screen open.


    Sighing deeply, Sam simply fell back, landing on his back as he started counting down alongside the next Wave window in the most bored voice he had ever produced.


    ¡°47, 46, 45...¡±


    [ Victory condition completed ]


    ¡°Excusemewhatthefuck?!¡± Sam sat up with a jerk and looked at this new window he hadn¡¯t seen before. There was hope in his heart but at the same time, an unhealthy dose of paranoia tried to drag him back down. Mentally focusing on the window with a questioning feel opened up more info.


    [ Victory condition: Kill all !¡±%&%#& bosses without taking a single hit, 20 times in a row. ]


    ¡°Oh, so that¡¯s all, huh?¡± Sam shouted out seething with anger. ¡°That¡¯s fucking it? You could have fucking told me that before. That shit¡¯s easy after the first few rounds. Then you fucking send a new piece of shit I haven¡¯t seen into the mix and I accidentally get hit by one fucking little spider or some shit. That¡¯s it?! Mother--¡± Rambling to himself, ranting in a long string of swears he stops moving and ranting for a few seconds as it all boils over, squatting down he punches the hard stone-like floor with all his might, his fist breaking and cracking horribly as some of the fractures extend from his hand.


    This was followed by a long, loud and powerful scream in pain and agony.


    ¡°Ok... fine... Calm down...¡± Speaking to himself he calmed down considerably. Inhaling deeply and exhaling, almost as if he¡¯s going to his mental happy place.


    [ Focusing on passive skill; Vital Recovery ]


    He stood there in an almost meditative stance, the bones in his hand pulled themselves back, forcing himself to not react too much he couldn¡¯t entirely avoid a twitch of pain in both his hand and expression as the broken bones snapped back in place before the skin slowly healed itself.


    A few minutes later his hand looked fine, he opened and closed it a few times as a test before feeling satisfied, but then his face turned back to pure fury as he turned around to look at the information window, which was in the rough centre of his view the whole time.


    Pointing at it judginly he continued his shouting. ¡°The fuck do you mean that this is done now? Can I leave? The hell kind of reward are you going to give me for this? I hope it''s that all of you assholes keel over and die in a woodchipper, cock first... if you have cocks... whatever, painfully!¡±


    [ Please select a reward ]


    Sam scoffed as he checked the date on his phone, he knew there might be some time drift but that would only be a few seconds, minutes at worst. If what he saw there, based on the date and timestamp of the last messages from Janik, he had been in this place for 51 days.


    ¡°Almost two months, this fucking better be worth it.¡±


    [ Please select from the following rewards:


    -Armour


    -Weapon


    -Accessory


    -Skill ]


    ¡°Well... That¡¯s underwhelming...¡± Sam shook his head in disbelief, looking both disappointed and angry. ¡°You could at least list what I get. If I choose ¡®weapon¡¯ and get a shit-tier dagger... I mean...¡±


    Sam was waiting, hoping that things would change, almost as if his command for shit to change would be heard. ¡°Well? I have opened enough random boxes to know that randomly selecting shit is not a good way to do things if you can avoid it.¡± Moving the reward window a bit to the side in his view he started looking around he almost expected to see the man behind the curtain, but there was nothing besides the damaged room from his time in here.


    In the side of his vision the reward window glitched for a brief moment, flickered away but came back immediately afterwards.


    ¡°Oh? That fucking worked?¡± Sam commented as he moved the window back into focus as a small smile grew on his lips. ¡°Well, this turned into a no-brainer.¡±

 Ch.070 - Zar is back

    [ Please select from the following rewards:


    -Armour - Knight¡¯s Breastplate (C)


    -Weapon ¨C Golden Burst Morningstar (C)


    -Accessory - Boots of nimble steps (B)


    -Skill ¨C Invisibility (A) ]


    Changes to the list were surprisingly simple, but also kind of misleading. He didn¡¯t trust the Entities that ran this thing, but there was one Entity that had at least shown some promise, perhaps two if you imagine the one that ¡®rented¡¯ him a while ago, could have done horrible things but just went on a joyride instead.


    The Entity he spoke with a while ago, was this his... her... its doing, or was this something else, there were many kinds of skills he wanted. Invisibility and stealth-related things were something he wanted, but he hadn¡¯t used any of that in here¡­ did they read his information or was that reward cherrypicked for him?


    He wanted to comment on how the list was incredibly random, except for the skill which was aligned with his wishes. Had he not complained perhaps he might have gone for the weapon or armour, none of which feels right for him without checking their stats. The boots could possibly work, their name hinted at them being stealth-focused, but he didn¡¯t know for certain.


    In his process of analysis, he concluded that he didn¡¯t care too much. Sure, his greed and wish for improving still wanted to analyse and make sure the ¡®correct thing¡¯ was chosen, but he was more focused on getting out of this place, he had been here for close to two months and it felt infinitely longer than that. Sam had noticed that he had gotten a bit twitchy in how he reacted to danger this time¡­ especially when considering the corrupted bosses, but he had also done some horrible things to the poor Dungeon monsters.


    More than once Dia¡¯s face flashed in his mind as he killed the monsters with some form of insanity, but every time he had told himself that Dungeon monsters and sapient ones like Dia, were different. And they were, this had been confirmed but in the start, it felt weird, now it almost felt weird that he should consider them something else than entertainment.


    ¡°The skill, Invisibility. Now get me out of here.¡± Sam commanded, even if he knew that there was no need to speak his opinion, he just wanted out.


    [ Skill chosen. Do you wish to leave, or continue for higher rewards? ]


    Sam almost laughed, instead, he felt anger swell inside him. This was probably how the Wave system should work. You survive 10 waves and get the question to continue or quit. Not only didn¡¯t he want to spend more time in here, he also didn¡¯t know if the system would keep glitching or fuck with him.


    No, he wanted out.


    ¡°No, fuck that. Take me out of here.¡± Angrily barking at the System window he didn¡¯t want to stay in there any more. Had this been working as it should have been from the start, he might have considered it, but with this shit, the nightmarish things he fought.


    Eventually, he figured them out and their repeated arrivals only lowered their fear factor, but he still had bad dreams about insects under his skin, slick and gooped-up tentacles trying to invade his body, and shit like the Flesh Collector who tore pieces of Sam to graft onto itself... He hated it here more than anything he had been through, he¡¯d easily take the Flesh Dungeon before this place in the future.


    As the bright light started enveloping him he could only finally honestly smile.


    A chaotic crash with shattering glass, things breaking, and people screaming in surprise reached Sam¡¯s ears before he could properly see anything. As the white light left his vision he could see what was going on.


    He had been transported back and found himself standing in the lobby next to the reception where he disappeared, the only problem here was that everything he had gathered in the Wave Dungeon came with him. The gear was not a major issue, nor was his own disgustingly dirty self, but last time he counted he had over 6000 Aether Crystals in that hallway... All of those came with him and seemingly landed everywhere.


    ¡°What the fuck is going on?!¡± A male voice cut through everything with a thunderous commanding tone.


    Looking towards it, Sam found a man in a TAC guard uniform, wading through the wave of crystals that bellowed out from their landing spot, seeming to have been deposited in a rough area they just flowed out like a mini avalanche.


    ¡°Err... yeah... About that...¡± Sam commented hesitantly, even though he was smiling from ear to ear. He was back, he didn¡¯t care what problems came out of this, he was back!


    As the man took a somewhat fight-ready stance, Sam noticed something in the corner of his eye.


    [ Invisibility (A) unlocked ]


    [ Invisibility - A


    Lasting invisibility up to 30 minutes after activation.


    -Gives 10% per point of Energy dedicated.


    -Energy is refunded at deactivation of skill failure.


    -Invisibility breaks on strenuous activity, like combat. ]


    ¡°Are we going to have a problem here?¡± The guard continued, his hand moving to the handle strapped to his back.


    ¡°No, not at all.¡± Sam smiled back at him, being geared vastly better than him. A glance at the man Appraised him as a lvl 15 Warrior, his skills focused him on hammer use and though he was decently strong his defence and offence had no chance against Sam, should it come to that.


    ¡°I was just transported out of here a while ago, and now I came back. I didn¡¯t have any say in just where I landed.¡±


    ¡°I think we need to talk, come with me.¡± The guard¡¯s tone was firm but also had a questioning tone, almost like he understood that if Sam went with him, it was because Sam wanted to.


    But, he didn¡¯t intend to cause any problems. Sam nodded to the man but turned to the receptionist. ¡°Would it be possible to count all of this up and hold it for me until I get back? I¡¯ll be selling most of it.¡±


    He knew this was not the receptionist¡¯s job, but given that he was being abducted by the guard it wasn¡¯t too much he could do about it right now.


    The middle-aged woman in the reception nodded hesitantly, still seeming shocked by the experience.


    Sam went with the guard and was led into a room through some hallways before being asked to sit down in an interrogation room, with metal furniture, a one-way mirror and everything.


    ¡°Now, Identify yourself and explain what happened?¡± The man asked, sitting down on the other side of the table Sam sat down next to.


    ¡°The short of it is that I was transported out of the lobby... a while ago, and I just now completed the Dungeon and came back.¡± Sam didn¡¯t go into more detail than that, he didn¡¯t feel there was a need to, and TAC didn¡¯t have more power over him than what they needed for TAC safety.


    As he started his explanation he took out his Player ID card from a pocket under his armour, he was almost surprised to still have it but he never had a reason to take it out so it was safely kept there the whole time.


    The guard took the card and scanned it with his phone, going through a few things there as he listened to Sam. After a few minutes, he returned Sam¡¯s card.


    ¡°From what I can see here, you disappeared from the lobby as you say, six months ago, the security tapes and report by the receptionist explain that you suddenly panicked and asked TAC to take care of your... companion if she didn¡¯t come with you. Then you teleported out.¡±


    The guard turned his phone after starting a video, showing Sam the security recording of himself talking to the receptionist and suddenly panicking, commanding them to use his resources if needed and to contact Janik, then teleporting out suddenly.


    Sam¡¯s eyes saddened considerably as he saw the video continue and Dia panicking, shouting for Sam again and again, looking around trying to find him. The guard turned his phone around again and inhaled to continue talking, but Sam beat him to it.


    ¡°What happened to her?¡± He could hear his voice break as he asked. He hoped that his request to care for her out of his pocket would be enough, and to contact Janik would be enough to keep her going, but half a year...


    ¡°I can get to that after, first I need to kn-¡± The guard took control of the situation but was again interrupted.


    Sam felt his mind shift, he needed to know more than he cared for what happened here. Stopping himself in turning it violent, after all the guard was just doing his job, but there was something in the back of Sam¡¯s mind that just wanted to tear him apart for not answering right away. A large shift in how his emotional side was reacting compared to his logical mind.


    ¡°What happened to Dia?¡±


    In Sam¡¯s mind, he asked that question normally, but seeing the guard¡¯s instincts reach for, but not pulling, his hammer hinted that Sam might not have asked as pleasantly as he expected.


    ¡°She¡¯s fine, on your request we contacted-¡± he checked his phone to remember the next detail before continuing, though he never took his eyes off Sam. ¡°-Janik, as you requested. He took custody of her.¡±


    This calmed Sam down considerably, he felt a massive amount of tension fade out of his body. If Janik took care of her, everything should be fine. He didn¡¯t trust many people in this world, but he was one of the few.


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    The rest of the interrogation was more straightforward, Sam did his best to not react out of the ordinary, he had nothing against the guard, after all, he was just tired and jumpy. He didn¡¯t share the Ascendancy system nor the specific details, he only shared what he felt the Guard needed to know. Angling this as a mini-dungeon that just ate him up, claiming to not know why he was teleported out like that without anyone else knowing, worked to some degree but didn¡¯t explain his reaction to caring for Dia.


    That was luckily amended by just stating the standard. A System window explained that he¡¯d be teleported out alone, he didn¡¯t know if a bound companion counted as ¡®alone¡¯ or not, so he panicked.


    In the end, he was let go after having to re-answer the same questions multiple times, he was eventually allowed to leave. Heading back to the reception, he hoped they had gone through his stuff and found his phone.


    Not having had the chance of a shower, he wanted to get a room and just get cleaned up, he was still caked in... stuff and it wasn¡¯t even sticky anymore. He wanted to eat something... Just... some food that isn¡¯t a simple sandwich... He wanted something greasy and bad for you.


    Finding himself in the reception soon enough, he walked up to the same woman who saw him arrive. ¡°Good...¡± He looked at a clock on the wall to find it was in the early evening. ¡°Evening. Now... I¡¯m sorry for my arrival but... I would love to get a room for the night.¡± Putting his ID card on the counter between them she hesitantly nodded and did her normal checks.


    ¡°Oh, Mr. Carter. A room for you is not a problem, will that be all?¡± She didn¡¯t look up as she kept doing things on the computer, which was much like the other times he went through this, probably going through the registration process.


    ¡°I¡¯d like some food sent to my room, something good and greasy, I don¡¯t care what it is as long as it¡¯s not sandwiches.¡± Sam commented dryly. ¡°I also wonder if you found my phone in the... pile of stuff I came with.¡±


    She looked at him a bit weirdly when he requested no sandwiches but nodded in either case.


    ¡°I don¡¯t have a report of the things that came with you yet. But I can have it sent to your room if we find it.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine. I also want the gear sent there. I¡¯ll just sell all the Aether Crystals right away, but everything else I want sent to my room.¡± Sam wanted to have a proper look and think about this properly. He glossed over it in the Dungeon but he knew his mindset might change as he relaxes.


    The receptionist nodded and noted everything, explaining that his ID card should open up his room on the 5th floor.


    He felt like he almost blacked out as he walked there, only imagining eating something proper and having a solid shower before anything else, remaining in his mental bubble, thoughts of things that happened the last two months, his mind had only been focused on fighting, on surviving, just being able to walk like this without any danger was... unreal, in a way.


    And six months, though the dilation was very different compared to the last time, it was still bad. Janik would handle it fine and Elara seemed to be surprisingly mature mentally, but he wondered how Dia handled it. She seemed to be the most bound to him in a way, and the memory of her panic in the surveillance video didn¡¯t help.


    Entering the door to his room, his focus changed as the door closed behind it, a shower.


    Walking into the bathroom he undressed for the first time in two months, having to almost peel his armour and clothes off himself, he entered the shower. As the warm water washed over him, it took with it what felt like years of fatigue. Though there was a lot wrong in the world yet, right now everything felt perfect.


    He didn¡¯t know how much time had passed, but he had soaped and cleaned his body at least five times, focusing only on the sound of the shower and the smell in the room improving by the minute, he finally exited into the rest of the room, feeling like a whole new person. He could see his skin colour for the first time in months, and that wasn¡¯t just due to the poor lighting in the Dungeon.


    Looking at himself in the mirror he saw just how bad it was. Having to chuckle at his horrible shaving, he took advantage of the hygiene kits in the bathroom to get a proper shave. His hair having lengthened wasn¡¯t an issue and was fixed by just pulling it back into a tiny ponytail, he¡¯d get that cut later.


    His clothing was still caked in... things, he briefly wondered about putting it all in a bathtub and cleaning it, but that sounded like a hassle. Remembering that TAC had a cleaning service, perhaps it was about time to use that. Putting on a complimentary bathrobe he walked into the living room, and as he sat down on the sofa, intending to order the cleaning service the next thing he realised was waking up to the sound of knocking on the door.


    He had fallen asleep the moment he sat down, all the fatigue catching up to him had just knocked him out as soon as he was comfortable. This made a lot of sense. Chuckling a little at the situation of comfort he walked to the door, looking through the peephole.


    Seeing two women in TAC-branded uniforms behind push-carts of food and items, he mentally felt uncertain even though he had ordered them. Psyhand reached for some weapons in the bathroom, he was ready for a fight if it came to that before he opened the door.


    ¡°Oh, Mr Cater, we¡¯re here with the food you ordered and the items you wanted sent up.¡± She had a practised smile as she patiently waited for him to open the door.


    Looking at them for several seconds, he eventually stepped aside and opened the door for them to enter. As the door opened enough they came in, parking the two push carts next to the door.


    ¡°Just leave everything on the carts and we¡¯ll pick them up on order, or during the next room cleaning.¡± She smiled and gave him a little curtsey, her colleague did the same as she saw it done, and they both left after.


    Sam closed the door and locked it as soon as they left, and before he could think of something else he could finally smell the food.


    It was divine.


    Lifting the cloches on the first cart, he found steak, hamburgers, vegetables and sauces. Several dishes with some desserts next to it. He almost shed a tear as he started eating it all like a magical caveman, ignoring the cutlery in favour of his hands and Psyhands, eating to the point of him almost hating himself due to stomach pain.


    But it was a good pain.


    Once that was done, he finally looked at the second cart, it had the rest of the gear he had gotten from the Dungeon, placed over the two stories of the cart. On the side was his phone, having been cleaned like the rest.


    Picking it up, it still had plenty of power left, not surprising as it had been standing on an Aether crystal most of the time it wasn¡¯t in use. Unlocking it he found several messages and missed calls from Janik.


    First, several messages were wondering if he was back, and what happened, being dated back around the time he disappeared. This was followed by nicer messages and updates on how Dia and Elara were doing. Preceded with a message explaining that he¡¯d ¡®just share things in case Sam could see them¡¯, it became a sort of diary of events.


    Elara was with Grace most of the time, the first images and clips had a depressive tone over them, at least from Elara¡¯s angle, but eventually, this turned into more and more positive as she spent time with Grace.


    Dia¡¯s were worse, at first she was depressed and failed to hide a kind of panic, but eventually, this became better and better. There were clips of her speaking in, broken but understandable English. She explained, on her own, that she had taken Janik¡¯s phone to send images and videos of herself talking to Sam, how she was improving and hoping he¡¯d come back soon.


    There were more and more clips and images of them spending time together, Janik explained that he told Dia how it worked last time, and that he would be back in time. She didn¡¯t like it at first but eventually, she seemed to accept that it was only a matter of time.


    This was followed by more updates on things going on, how Dia was accepted by Janik¡¯s gaggle of kids, and her first meeting with the snow. This keyed Sam in on that it was winter now, he hadn¡¯t considered the date. At first, she was hesitant about this cold, white powder, but a few more updates later she was rolling around in it, digging through it like the fox she was, disappearing into large snow mounds only to pop out elsewhere.


    Janik was taking care of them.


    Sam briefly wondered if it was better if they would stay with him, his life was probably going to get more dangerous going forward, and it looked like they were having the time of their life... eventually. He could just transfer some funds to Janik to make sure he was set and could care for them, with some extra for his troubles.


    But, as he neared the end of the messages, he noticed that they were all from today. Janik commented that Elara confirmed that he was back. The 14 missed calls were also from today, only a few hours ago until only a few minutes before the food was delivered. He demanded to be contacted. He and Elara could handle this, but Dia needed to see him again.


    That removed the chance of Sam not bringing them back into his life, it wasn¡¯t like he didn¡¯t want to bring them back, he wanted them there... desperately. But there was safety to consider.


    As he was considering this, a video was sent from Janik, opening it showed Dia shouting at the phone, holding it with both hands and shaking it in a mix of desperation, need and anger.


    ¡°Zar! Zar is back! Where are you?! Please!¡± She looked like she was moments from tearing up, ordering him to answer.


    He answered simply; he was back and he was in room 514.

 Ch.071 - Donating gear

    Sam took the moment to order cleaning service, and to have his clothes sent to his room if they had it, as he left it in his old room before he was taken away.


    It didn¡¯t take many seconds before Janik replied that they¡¯d be right there.


    He jumped a bit as there was a knock on the door, but it was too calm to be anything besides the TAC workers, this was confirmed through the peephole. Since Sam had explained in the order what stuff he wanted to be cleaned up, the man outside came with a large pushcart.


    Opening the door, the man introduced himself and repeated what they spoke about on the phone. They would register everything that was brought for cleaning, and it would be returned to him within an hour, or two in the case of Sam¡¯s volume. This was highly official and signed off via contracts and everything, as this was a substantial amount of gear he was sent off with. But everything felt proper and was signed, confirmed through TAC and re-confirmed through the System, removing any chance of this being theft.


    The man left with Sam¡¯s hoard of items, he felt surprisingly defenceless but he still had his new gear in an emergency, and he kept the axe in case it was needed, cleaning that himself. As the newest weapon, it was also the least dirty weapon so it didn¡¯t take too long.


    Placing the axe in a central area of the small apartment he was in, it was always available within his reach. He didn¡¯t expect to need it, but it didn¡¯t feel right not having something at hand.


    It didn¡¯t take long before there was a panicked hammering on the door, looking through the peephole he saw Dia almost ready to punch the door down. Unlocking the door and opening it was the needed catalyst for Dia to fling it open the rest of the way and pounce on him, she proceeded to make a lot of weird sounds he hadn¡¯t heard from her before as she rubbed her head against his face and neck like a dog who saw her master for the first time in months, having far too much energy for the situation. He didn¡¯t try to stop it but found himself hugging her back, though she was somewhat hard to hold still, she returned the hug but kept rubbing herself against him. She repeated his name and ¡®Zar¡¯ repeatedly, focusing more on the latter word than his name.


    It didn¡¯t take long before a certain snake slithered her way in and somehow found a way to coil herself around Sam, pushing her head against his neck in her own, though much calmer, way.


    Sam could hear the door close, seeing a relieved Janik standing there, just looking at this unfolding, not interrupting.


    But, as the minutes dragged on and they finally calmed down, Janik finally crouched down next to them. ¡°I think we need to talk.¡± He was smiling and looking honestly glad, but there was an undertone of seriousness to it.


    Helping him up, Janik gave Sam a long hug before letting go and motioned for the central table and chairs. Dia refused to let go and was holding around Sam the whole time.


    As Sam sat down, Dia climbed onto his lap and scrunched up against him, putting her whole head under his chin, against his throat, remaining there with a sad expression on her.


    Janik chuckled as he sat down on the other side.


    ¡°Now... Before I tell things from my side, I need to know what happened...¡± Janik¡¯s smile faded to a very serious expression. ¡°You were gone for almost half a year, how long was it for you?¡±


    Sam held around Dia as she sat on his lap, her tails wagging and stopping at regular intervals, she didn¡¯t seem to know if she wanted to be happy or sad. He answered Janik¡¯s question, keeping no detail hidden, explaining everything including managing to trigger the Ascendancy system to increase his Spirit, but he still didn¡¯t know what stopped him from doing it whenever he wanted.


    ¡°Wait... so you got Appraise as an A-rank?¡± Of all the things Sam explained, Janik bit into that detail.


    ¡°Yes, it¡¯s better than your E-rank one.¡± Sam casually commented to hint that he could see everything.


    [ Janik Znai


    Level: 21


    STR: 10


    DEX: 17


    VIT: 16


    SPT: 0


    HP: 210/210


    Damage: 220/220


    Defence: 66 (+5 on natural ground)


    Abilities: Fluidity, Vital Strike, Active Defence, Appraisal (E), Cumulative Strike, Duelists'' Defence ]


    [ Fluidity: Calculate melee off of Dex as long as using one-handed swords. ]


    [ Vital Strike: Boosted damage calculation. ]


    [ Active Defence: By attacking incoming attacks, the user can parry and deflect the attacks. ]


    [ Appraisal (E): Can see basic health of targets up to 5 levels above the user. ]


    [ Cumulative strike: Calculates total damage done at the same time, before calculating Defence. ]


    [ Duelist''s Defence: Wile unarmed or using Duelist weapons, gain +5 or +20% Defence. ]


    Janik covered his body, taking care to cover his chest and crotch and turned to the side to hide himself, as if he was a woman who was walked in on while naked.


    Sam chuckled, this dumb humour, oh how he had missed it.


    ¡°I haven¡¯t tested the Invisibility yet, haven¡¯t taken the time to, but I will do that before I go anywhere, right now I want to sleep for a week...¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I can see that. Your little friend there had some problems when you disappeared. Her English is good enough to properly talk to now, so that helped. But it took a while for me to convince Dia that you¡¯d be back. As we found out last time: Elara can tell when you''ve returned but she still had problems. Dia was frequently running around, looking for you everywhere.¡±


    Sam understood her reaction, not understanding what this was, she might have had some separation issues. This felt logical based on how he found her on the island and how she reacted when he wanted her to stay behind.


    ¡°I¡¯ll also say that I took a few thousand from your account.¡± Janik added with a wide smile. ¡°She eats a lot, and they said that your lifetime free stay doesn¡¯t extend to companions, she wanted to wait for you here for a while before I persuaded her to come with me.¡±


    There was nothing Sam could say against this, he was just happy he took care of her.


    ¡°The kids love her, so that¡¯s good.¡± Janik continued. ¡°Though, the puberty boys struggled a little with her not liking clothes that much... It... err... took a while before I persuaded her to use underwear.¡± Ending with a chuckle, Janik sported an embarrassed expression Sam hadn¡¯t seen before.


    Sam remembered that time as well from his youth, he couldn¡¯t fault them for having ¡®struggles¡¯ with nudity around them at that time.


    ¡°Well... I feel I should at least thank you.¡± Sam replied, though he wasn¡¯t looking at Janik and focused on Dia, which was partly just wanting to look at her more, but also a certain feeling of inadequacy. ¡°I¡¯m glad you took care of her, of them, and should it happen again I hope that I can rely on you again.¡±


    ¡°What kind of request is that?¡± Janik replied, sounding offended and annoyed. ¡°Of fucking course I¡¯ll take care of them.¡±


    This surprised Sam, he had his thoughts that Janik of all people wouldn''t think twice, but at the same time, he had to confirm it.


    ¡°I¡¯m glad to hear that, as a reward you can help yourself from the gear over there.¡± Sam commented, nodding towards the gear on the cart he had them bring up. ¡°I¡¯m fine with what I have, or rather when it¡¯s clean.¡±


    ¡°A... are you sure?¡± Janik seemed hesitant, not that he wasn¡¯t interested, he was, but he seemed uncertain.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m just going to sell it anyway, and if this helps you, it helps me through you. If we¡¯re going to continue our grinding I need you on your best.¡± Sam turned this to keeping his party geared, which wasn¡¯t wrong. He expected shit to get worse in the future, he wanted to speed up what they were doing, and due to that they needed to get geared up as well.


    ¡°I intend to relax a bit, spend some time with Dia-¡± Looking back at Janik, he could feel determination and anger build inside him. ¡°-Then I¡¯ll speed up progression, I want to stop this as fast as possible. I¡¯m fucking tired of all this shit.¡±


    ¡°Yeah... I can tell.¡± When Sam specified that he wanted to spend time with Dia, he could see Janik¡¯s face grow a grin as he intended to comment, but as the sentence was completed it changed to a serious one.


    Janik didn¡¯t comment, but got up and went to check the gear he could pick from. He used a few minutes to look over things.


    ¡°A... are you sure about this? This is some good gear...¡±


    Sam chuckled, it seemed he figured out the cost of things. ¡°Yeah. I plan on giving Dia some of it, but take what you want.¡±


    ¡°No, I mean... I just checked, the selling price of this chest piece alone would probably be around $800 000.¡± Janik looked almost in panic considering this.


    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    ¡°Then the buy price would be much higher, if you want it, take it,¡± Sam commanded. ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you came back with like 6 000 of those crystals? If you¡¯re afraid of money, I¡¯m fine.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I get it but... This...¡± Turning back to the pile, Janik was flustered.


    ¡°Consider it a loan, then, use it until you find something better and give it back to me, if that makes it easier for you.¡± Sam waved it off, he knew the value of something like this. He was about to become quite rich, so he didn''t care. He wanted to give something back to Janik. It would certainly increase the efficiency of their party but also, when he disappeared, Janik cared for Dia and Elara without question.


    ¡°I mean... what do you intend to give to Dia, so I don¡¯t take that.¡± Sounding almost like he was looking for excuses to not take things, he at least brought up a good point.


    ¡°I wanted to give her the shoes, but I don¡¯t think she has the feet for it.¡± Sam smiled as he gestured to her paw-feet at the end of her digitigrade legs. He didn¡¯t imagine normal foot-based shoes would do well on her. ¡°I have a headpiece for her off for cleaning, and I thought I¡¯d give her the Phantom Vest.¡±


    ¡°Ah.. ok... That makes sense, in that case, I¡¯ll take the shoes and the Titanplate, if... that¡¯s fine... I can trade in my old armour, that... feels a bit better. ¡± He still sounded hesitant, almost like he hoped Sam would say no.


    ¡°Yeah, go for it.¡± He smiled in return at his almost insecure friend.


    He got it, he really did. Though he didn¡¯t know the cost of everything there as Janik did, Sam knew that the shoes would go for a few tens of thousands, if not more. Janik just confirmed the chest plate to cost around 800 000, so it was a considerable sum when given away, even as a loan.


    The armour seemed forged of dense, rune-etched stone reinforced with steel bands. Its surface a mosaic of smooth rock and intricate carvings.


    [ Titanstone Chestplate - High-end C rank


    Defence: 80


    Immovable Fortress: Reduce knockback and Stagger by 20%


    Stoneward Protection: Increases Physical damage resistance by 10%


    Earthbound Vitality: Gradually restore 1% health over time when standing still on stone or earth. Effect triggers after standing still for 10 seconds. ]


    [ Fleetfoot shoes: +20% movement speed ]


    Janik used a few minutes to put it on and feel its weight and balance, changing tightness here and there as he stretched and bent around. Sam wanted Dia to try on the armour he had for her, but she had fallen asleep in his embrace. He decided to let her sleep. He expected the armour would work fine for her.


    ¡°This... is a fucking good piece of armour,¡± Janik commented as he put it on. The shoes he just stepped into without much effort.


    ¡°Good, then I assume you¡¯ll continue as my tank.¡± Sam smiled. Janik was a Dexterity fighter, but with his Active defence ability and now the bonus to armour on top of a solid set, he was turning into a solid wall.


    Dia was more focused on dodging, at least that was how he was somewhat building her. Dia now had quality armour set aside for her and her exceptional Dexterity already made her quite proficient at dodging. He intended to give her the hairpiece as well, once it was cleaned. Adding the hairpiece to the armour should stack her total Evasion to a combined 20%. with the armour. With her natural speed, this should work well as a skirmisher.


    ¡°I¡¯ll admit I don¡¯t exactly know where to go from here...¡± Janik broke the silence as he turned around to Sam.


    ¡°I think you¡¯re overthinking this. I plan to rest before I go back out, for a few days or something. I¡¯ll eat anything but sandwiches for that time. I¡¯ll also spend the money I get from the crystals and the rest of the gear, after that I don¡¯t know; we¡¯ll go back to the second Floor and skip a few dungeons or something.¡± Even though he was tired and needed rest, his body was ready for a fight, as it had been every second the last two months, he kind of wanted to fight.


    ¡°Well, perhaps we can spar tom-¡± Janik pounded his chest as if he was testing the armour, suggesting a spar with Sam.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s a good idea.¡± Sam commented, interrupting him. ¡°My total damage, not counting critical hits, is about 410. Let¡¯s say you can parry my two most damaging weapons, that¡¯s still 330. If your armour avoids 100 of that, it¡¯s still 230. And that¡¯s without considering Static Charge, my passive electrical damage, also assuming I don¡¯t pick you up and throw you, try to disarm you or attack your eyes and other sensitive areas. I can also become invisible now and...¡± Sam wanted to go on, but he started to realize that he was feeling arrogant and downplaying Janik¡¯s skill and strength.


    ¡°Ah... yeah... well..¡± Janik rubbed the back of his head. ¡°I suppose you are sort of dangerous like that... But, if it¡¯s just for sparring I still want to give it a go, you can never stop learning!¡± Janik looked surprisingly pumped, even knowing that he¡¯d most likely lose.


    Sam chuckled, enough to wake Dia up, but she just repositioned and shoved her nose up next to his neck and fell asleep again.


    ¡°I suppose it can¡¯t hurt if I can¡¯t hurt you.¡±


    ¡°Oh, no, it fucking hurt last time, but as long as we¡¯re in those rooms I¡¯m fine.¡± Again looking pumped, Sam felt a second tone, almost like a hidden agenda in his words.


    ¡°Well, for now, I think I¡¯ll rest, you¡¯re welcome to come back tomorrow, we can eat something nice and just relax for once.¡± Sam smiled at his friend. They had been fighting and grinding dungeons together for so long, that they hadn¡¯t gotten to just relax and spend much time together.


    ¡°I¡¯d like that.¡± Janik replied with an honest smile. ¡°I don¡¯t get to do much relaxing, so I¡¯ll take you up on that.¡±


    ¡°But... right now I noticed something else.¡± Sam realised something as he looked at Janik perhaps with an odd expression as Janik looked a bit uncomfortable.


    ¡°W.. what. Do you see cancer in me or something?¡± His uncertainty changed instantly as he motioned for his crotch. ¡°Or did you just see something amazing~¡±


    Sam chuckled. ¡°Good joke, but no. You remember how I said that I found a weird roundabout way to display what data I could edit? I¡¯m seeing that on you now.¡±


    Janik¡¯s amusement changed into extreme excitement instead. ¡°Wait, you mean you can increase my stats?!¡±


    This again woke Dia, this time it was Janik¡¯s fault, but she didn¡¯t seem to have big problems with it as Sam was still there with her.


    ¡°Yes, but only by one, most likely. I can also only increase your basic stats, nothing else.¡±


    ¡°Dexterity... please.¡± Holding himself back from getting too excited, Janik started staring into nothing as he no doubt looked at his Player Statistics.


    Sam did his roundabout way of requesting and updating a number, giving it a +1, increasing his Dexterity to 18.


    ¡°Hoooolyfuck! It worked!¡± Janik was quite surprised, not something Sam could fault him for, this was a pretty good change even if it was ¡®just one¡¯, it was basically a better level up.


    ¡°You doubted me?¡± Sam smirked at him, knowing this was something a bit too good to be true from the start, so doubt it would just be the smart thing to do.


    ¡°No... Yes... I mean... No.. I do mean yes. It just sounded a bit... much... right? First of all; Thank you. I appreciate it but it just...¡± Janik was at a loss of words.


    Sam chuckled again, this was a surprisingly good feeling. ¡°I don¡¯t know when I¡¯ll be able to do that again, I don¡¯t know what limits when I can do it or by how much, but I¡¯ll let you know if I see it again.¡±


    ¡°Oh, please do.¡± Janik stopped himself as he was about to say something else, pondering for a brief moment. ¡°This... might sound weird but... Could you see if you can help Ethan as well?¡± His smile and happiness had turned a bit into worry.


    Sam understood his worry, at least to a certain degree. ¡°I¡¯d be glad to, the next time I meet him.¡±


    This statement seemed to make Janik surprisingly relieved.


    They kept talking, and though the talk continued about his statistic editing for a while it devolved into dumb humour and talking about random things. Eventually, Dia woke up. She absolutely refused to get off his lap. When he moved she followed him and climbed back on once he was seated again. Janik laughed at them a little, but not at their expense, it was more laughing at something adorable.


    They spent the rest of the day together. Dia hadn¡¯t spoken much at all, she just wanted to be close to Sam. Sam¡¯s eyes were growing heavy and Janik excused himself upon noticing. Janik demanded Sam send him a message when he woke tomorrow. He promised relaxation and later, dinner.


    Sam headed for bed after Janik left, climbing into bed it didn¡¯t take long for Dia to instigate something which woke him right up again. It seemed that sleep was down-prioritised in favour of something else.

 Ch.072 - Zar Ok?

    Sam woke the next day, on his own accord for once. Sadly that was due to the need for the bathroom, but it was still incredibly nice to wake up with Dia wrapped around him rather than waking up in that horrible place, on the stone floor, expecting to get into a fight in a few minutes. He wasn¡¯t able to slither out of her grasp without her waking up, this time he even tried using his Psyhands to gently move her arms and legs, but she woke nonetheless.


    ¡°No, Zar no leave. Dia come with.¡± She looked angry and sad at the same time like she was afraid he was going to suddenly disappear again.


    He didn¡¯t have the heart to force her to let him go, so she came with him instead.


    Leaving the room he found it a bit strange that last night¡¯s intimacy wasn¡¯t affected by the sapient snake in the room. Elara spent the night with Sam and Dia this round, though not a problem it was still a bit odd in hindsight.


    Even though he once taught Dia how the toilet worked by showing, for some reason it was incredibly awkward not being alone right now. Even though they were recently intimate this just felt... oddly wrong.


    It wasn¡¯t like she sat there and stared at him, she was more attentive to her hygiene and was grooming her fur, but it was just odd having her there. That was over fast enough, as he was done and went to wash his hands, she came with him like a russet shadow, something he was going to have to get used to.


    However, this all changed once they were done with morning bathroom stuff, she started sharing everything and anything she had been through the last two months. Jumping from topic to topic like a kid with a billion things they want to share and not being able to decide where to start.


    ¡°Janik said it was snow, white cold stuff. Is fun digging into, large piles, can make tunnels!¡± Using her hands she mimicked digging as she talked about it, seeming to have loved the snow. Being quite agile he could imagine her darting through snow tunnels without much effort. She continued to explain how she had fun with Janik¡¯s kids, how she struggled with snowballs, the kids were much better at it than her.


    This transitioned into her rapid-fire explaining random things she had been doing, focusing only on the positives. Sam only sat there and smiled, taking in her excitement, as he marvelled at her impressive grasp of English in this relatively short time.


    During their talk there was a knock on the door, it was only a minor disturbance as it was the staff returning with his gear. He got another cart with his stuff on it, and they picked up the other cart not in use with the food from yesterday.


    It didn¡¯t take long after that for Sam to get a text, asking when Janik should pop by. Replying that whenever was fine he returned to talking to Dia. After continuing with her adventures with Janik, going into Aetheria now and then for some runs and spending time with Janik¡¯s squad. Elara got the focus eventually, as she had a much calmer personality so she was somewhat overruled by the excited Dia.


    Elara had spent most of the time with Grace, she didn¡¯t go with Dia and Janik to Aetheria. And though she did envenom some throwing daggers for Janik, she didn¡¯t know if that helped them or not. She also did not like the snow, at all. Too cold. She learned quickly that she liked radiators a lot, Janik made a small nest for her near one which solved all heat problems when Grace wasn¡¯t around.


    The talks changed and turned towards Sam, though he didn¡¯t have much else to add than he explained with Janik yesterday, he went into as much detail as he wanted to at the time. Not feel comfortable sharing just how he changed over the time he was in there. How he took enjoyment in almost torture-like methods of killing the creatures in there, after all; ¡®they were only dungeon mobs¡¯. At first, this affected him due to Dia, but eventually,y there was a stark separation between the two and he was able to just go nuts.


    At first, this also caused some thoughts and moral issues in his mind, but that also faded as time went on. He found more and more effective ways to kill, to affect targets non-lethally but with brutal effect.


    ¡°Come to think of it.¡± Sam broke out of his spiral into negative thoughts, remembering his time in the last Solo Dungeon. ¡°You keep calling me Zar. I kind of know what it means but why don¡¯t you call me Sam, or something else?¡±


    His tone was curious more than anything. He knew the word meant something like love, husband, or some other designator for your significant other. But he didn¡¯t know why she hung onto it even now that she was learning English.


    Dia¡¯s expression changed, still happy just being around him but there was a bit more shyness mixed in. ¡°Zar mean Mate. Important.¡±


    Sam¡¯s expression turned more questioning. ¡°But why are you saying it in your language? I don¡¯t intend to force you to change it, I just wonder.¡±


    Dia pondered for a moment, seemingly looking for the correct words. ¡°It important in my people...¡± Looking upwards with a slight squint she was thinking of something. ¡°Culture! It important in culture. Mate is important, using Dia language feel better. Feel more important.¡± Placing her hand on her chest when referring to herself, her determined expression solidified that this was important to her.


    ¡°Hmm... I suppose that makes sense. There¡¯s a lot about your culture, and you, that I don¡¯t know. What happened the day I found you, why were you in the cage?¡± Sam asked, not sure if it was a sensitive topic or not.


    Her ears sank, hinting that it wasn¡¯t a fun topic at all. ¡°Dia was curious about Human, tribe not like. Dia also have two tail, Dia different, tribe not like. Dia live alone, no mate. Mate is important. Dia out, look at Human, learn to fight. One day, Human see Dia, capture, put in cage. Human... not nice, no food, no water, hurt for fun, human forget Dia and move. Goblin show up, Goblin want to eat Dia, but Dia angry, Goblin stab with pointy stick, wait until Dia weak. Then Zar show up, save Dia, help Dia.¡±


    Her explanation started with her ears dropping, she looked down and away from Sam as she explained, it got worse and she sounded more depressed as she mentally relived the events until her rescue. But as she got to the end of Sam showing up, her ears and eyes perked up, and her tails started wagging weakly.


    Pondering this for a moment a lot of things became clear. She was living on the Island, and of all people to meet they weren¡¯t exactly the best, generally. It was interesting that she seemed to have learned the basics of Martial Arts by stalking humans, she probably triggered something that let her learn it. Being looked down on for her interest in humans and her two tails could also explain why she was captured and not killed like her tribe most likely was. When Sam cared for her, it might have started as a rescuer syndrome thing but given that this could be one of the few times in her life she had been given care, it was easy to see why she refused to leave him.


    Sam didn¡¯t mind having her with him now. From his side, this started weird and was just someone to spend time with while on the island, but her devotion to him seemed to have worked out over the relatively short time they had spent together.


    Continuing to talk, even though Dia was somewhat of an outcast due to her interests and her extra tail, being branded ¡®different¡¯, she still was heavily influenced by her culture. This put Sam on a strangely high pedestal as far as importance goes. Even though she could fight, and easily take care of herself, especially now that she knew English, she still considered herself his second in anything. The fact that he was a good fighter only made things even better, he was providing for her and caring for her, and these things alone made him a very good mate.


    This put Sam in a strange spot, like most people he liked compliments but it felt weird getting them listed and bluntly explained like this. He didn¡¯t know what to say but a simple few words of gratitude seemed to do wonders.


    The rest of the time, until Janik arrived, was spent having Dia teach him her culture and language. Picking up a surprising amount of words as they didn¡¯t have grammar at all, their language was more contextual. Rather than having a different word for hunger and hungry, it was the same word, but the context and situation made it a statement or question. There were also not many pleasantries like please or polite words, it was more to the point and factual.


    These facts made the language surprisingly easy to pick up, he just needed to learn the words and the major context differences. He was also able to confirm that the words he already knew, were surprisingly on point. They were off by a slight meaning but as a general gist kind of thing. His showing interest in her culture and language made her ecstatic, to the point of her tails wagging back and forth like a small storm as she excitedly corrected his pronunciation.


    They also used a bit of time to try on the Armour that Sam felt worked better for Dia¡¯s style, it was an armoured vest crafted from an eerie, vaguely translucent fabric that shimmers faintly as caught in twilight. Its edges almost ripple with a vague haze.


    [ Phantom Vest - Mid-end C-rank


    Defence: 60


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Spectral Step: +10% evasion


    Shadow Veil: +10% stealth in low-light conditions


    Ghostly resilience: +10% damage reduction against ranged attacks. ]


    During this time he made sure to use as much of her language as they got the armour fitted for her, based on her wagging tails it seemed like it was very positively received.


    After the armour was properly fitted, he took the feathery hairpiece he had been wearing in the Dungeon and placed it on her head, something she seemed to like almost more. He had no idea why these things hit so well compared to other gear, he would have to ask her more about her culture later.


    He ordered someone to come and appraise the rest of his gear to take that off for sale. The men that came up to do this registered everything and took it away, having Sam sign off on having $1 491 000 covering the gear. This had him wonder, he hadn¡¯t checked his account after he had sold the load of Aether Stones he hoarded over all that time. Taking a minute to log in he saw that the total balance was now $8 601 824. This caused him great pause as he stared at the number, confirming it again and again.


    There was a note attached, checking that out he found that he sold 6986x Aether Crystals, as well as 34x Mana potions. It explained the sum but it was... a bit much... In a way. He was getting used to the large values of things but this just nuked that perspective.


    ¡°Zar? Zar Ok?¡± Dia asked with a worried tone from the side.


    ¡°Oh... yeah... yeah, I mean... I am... Just a bit surprised.¡± Sam answered honestly. ¡°I knew I had a ton of crystals but didn¡¯t properly consider their worth when I was in there, and now I can probably retire... had it not been for the System fucking with me.¡±


    Retiring with this money sounded pretty good at the moment. Had he been in Janik¡¯s situation he most likely would have, but he was in a rather... peculiar position...


    Parts of him immediately wanted him to blow money on S-class stuff, but he had to consider a bit. On one hand, he wanted to gear up his party as that would increase general survivability when they push on, but on the other hand, the next time he¡¯s pulled into a Solo Dungeon, he¡¯s going to be alone again, he needed to prepare for both.


    There was also the thing about training he wanted to do before he was sucked in the last time. Though he... got training, it wasn¡¯t what he was after. He wanted structured training. His time in the last Solo Dungeon had taught him a lot, though... shenanigans that should not be named, he had found out, or re-confirmed, alternative ways to attack or defend. But there were things he wanted to test, things that were best to test with a willing partner or a dummy.


    The first logical thing he decided to do, was to test his invisibility. He hadn¡¯t tested it at all so far, was too caught up in... other things.


    ¡°Dia, I¡¯m going to test a skill, I¡¯ll go invisible but want to see how well it works.¡±


    Dia nodded but tilted her head a little bit.


    [ Activating Invisibility - 5 Energy ]


    He decided to activate it on half power for now, and as expected he went translucent. He became entirely seethrough and looked like a ghostly shadow of himself. Dia jumped a little as the effect was instantaneous. A countdown started in his vision with some information once he had activated it.


    Looking at himself it was kind of strange. He was happy to notice that the entirety of ¡®him¡¯ was invisible, clothing and gear, but not in a separate instance so his clothes didn¡¯t go seethrough, showing him under it.


    [ Activating Invisibility - 10 Energy ]


    Like before, Dia jumped a little as he activated it, now he wasn¡¯t able to see his arms or body anymore, no matter how much he moved them around in his vision. Interestingly enough, if he closed his eyes he could still see because... his eyelids were transparent. This made him wonder how he could see at all, but it seemed that it just worked.


    ¡°Can you see me?¡± Sam asked Dia, who jumped at his voice.


    ¡°N... No... Zar is.., Gone... I hear you, I smell you, but not see you.¡± She reached out her hand towards where she sensed him. Stepping to his side she looked at him as he moved, her ears twitching and moving as he moved, eventually, she made contact which seemed to calm her down a bit.


    ¡°Dia touch Zar, Hear you, not silent. But not see.¡± She confirmed as she took a step back.


    Wanting to test one more thing, he deactivated the ability, coming back into view right away, the timer seemed to reset as it again startled Dia.


    He could re-activate it on a new timer, seeming that the limit was only how long ¡®this¡¯ cast lasted. This felt like it was designed for Mana users, as mana would be consumed. He could just re-cast it as much as he wanted as all his Energy was restored after he deactivated the ability.


    ¡°This is a good skill.¡± He smiled to himself. He still had things he needed to test, like attacking with his hands vs the Psyhands, what worked around that and such. But in either case, this was amazing.


    Sit down on the couch, Dia snuggled up against him he started browsing the TAC market on the room-tablet. There might be something that stood out and with his massive budget, he could at least get something. He had planned to rest for a few days, just take it easy, but his mind was high on preparation. Now that he was able to take a whole night to rest, comfortably, as well as just chill with Dia like this, there were ideas based on his experiences he wanted to test out, right away. To the point that he kind of didn¡¯t want to sit still.


    This put him in a very annoying situation, his body wanted rest, but his mind wanted to rush and go right away! To almost force him to think about other things, he decided to have some fun with Dia. She seemed to like being petted by his Psyhands, so he decided to use all of them. Starting with placing one hand on her head, she seemed content with that, then he proceeded to add more and more hands until all 40 were petting her, this turned from content purring with the first few hands to distressed confusion with all of them on her, having him stop with a small chuckle.


    He did, however, keep one of them on her head, which calmed her back down, though she had a questioning look towards Sam for a few moments once he did so.


    The rest of his hands were used for other things, since his mind wanted to do stuff he might as well use that to try out things. Using the Psyhands he mapped out the room, making a sort of remote-touch mental image of what was around corners, the ceiling, shoes near the door and everything. He had realised that his mind was holding him back in many cases, where he wanted to do different things with different hands, but his mind could only keep track of so many different activities at once.


    He needed to either find a way to get used to doing different things with different hands or find a way to give some of them a sense of autonomy. And without anyone like an expert to ask, he would have to test and try. In the end, he had various things going on, a few hands were tying and untying shoelaces, and others were reorganizing things in cupboards, a few were dedicated to petting Dia, others to massage his shoulders.


    This worked surprisingly well, though it was a calm and controllable situation, however, he decided that this might be the best way to do it for now, perhaps he¡¯d just get 40 fidget toys and see if he could handle that. But as soon as he thought about that, he realised that he kind of had. He had quite a set of weapons, all of which had sheaths. Changing his focus he started unsheathing his weapons, moving them and the sheaths around in other angles, and trying to re-sheath them at as random timings as he could. This was surprisingly straining and felt like just what he needed.


    All of this was interrupted by a knock on the door, which ruined his concentration enough that he stabbed multiple of his hands, luckily they didn¡¯t take damage but that could have been bad.


    Reaching over with a Psyhand, he opened the door. He expected it was Janik but if it wasn¡¯t, this was horrible timing for any opponent to come in the door if it came to that.


    ¡°I brought Pizza!¡± Janik¡¯s voice stated through the door as he entered, looking around confused for a second before he found Sam on the couch snuggled up against Dia.


    ¡°Ah, your hands, that makes sense.¡±


    Janik placed everything on the table before he took off his coat and shoes. ¡°So, what are we doing today?¡±


    Sam was going to enjoy this, and though his mind wanted to do all the things, it was good to just take some downtime as well. He¡¯d ask Janik about some good thoughts, skills or items at the same time.

 Ch.073 - Fake Steps

    They had spent most of the day sitting around, talking, watching things and just playing about. Janik liked the Invisibility and they found out that it was more overpowered than expected. It deactivated if Sam was attacking or moving around chaotically, but it didn¡¯t seem to count attacks made by the Psyhands as ¡®attacks¡¯. This raised many interesting questions, however, this meant that the only drawback it had was that it deactivated after 30 minutes, and needed 10 energy allocated to it to make him completely invisible.


    Janik also helped him look around for more skills and items, he was also taken aback at the sum he had earned from the fights, it was considerable, after all.


    ¡°Well, you can always have a look at the weird or abnormal weapons,¡± Janik commented as they looked at the list of things on the TAC market.


    ¡°What do you mean? Abnormal weapons?¡± Sam replied questioningly. He had seen the filter button on the page but hadn¡¯t considered it enough to click it.


    ¡°Yeah, there are weapons that are either non-standard, hard to use or just things that don¡¯t follow what people expect,¡± Janik explained as he clicked the button, changing the filter.


    This listed a lot of different things, weird things that would be hard to wield or just weapons that didn¡¯t have good synergy with other things. Things that had conflicting skills like a fire sword with a boon to cold damage, were not unusable but unexpected and odd.


    The bonus with these was that they were on average around 30% discounted compared to similar but non-abnormal items.


    ¡°Oh, this is interesting,¡± Sam commented as he turned the tablet towards himself.


    Looking through he found a lot of different things, the most amazing thing was the discount. Though 30% sounded both a lot and not enough, it changed a 5-trait S-rank dagger from $3 900 000 down to $2 730 000, which was a lot.


    Though most of them had the same conflicting skills, like a blade that heals when stabbing someone, usable in the correct scenario, it did damage at the same time so... shanking a friendly to heal them as you also do damage, effectively cutting down the effect unless the damage delt was lower than their Defence...


    Even though this meant that he could get some neat weapons somewhat cheaper, his mind went back to skills. Having seen just how both easy and hard, it was to get weapons and items, he thought that skills were the way to go. Items could be taken away from you or end up useless, but with the correct skills that could change.


    Setting up a list in the app on the tablet, he checked with Janik.


    ¡°I have always wanted an Item box skill, I also have ideas for things I can do besides just weapons, rope, or perhaps chain, which will make a lot of fights easier,¡± Sam explained. ¡°Having an item box will let me... not having to carry all of that shit around.¡±


    Janik nodded, somewhat agreeing with his thoughts.


    ¡°I also want a ton of strong zip-ties.¡± Sam continued. As he saw Janik¡¯s confused expression he explained further. ¡°Imagine a strong zip-tie lifted over your head and tightened. You don¡¯t need much force to tighten it and they are stupidly strong for their weight and cost. Now, you have two choices; use effort to cut or break it, or work through breathing issues. Either way, we win.¡±


    Janik looked at Sam with a horrified expression, but at the same time, it didn¡¯t seem like he had a good comeback. ¡°It won¡¯t work on things like the golems or stuff, but against anything that breathes... yeah... that sounds horrifyingly effective...¡±


    ¡°If I want to start carrying around a lot of weird things to use in combat like that, I think an Item box is worth the cost, much more than a good backpack, so I¡¯m getting this one.¡± Sam ended by clicking ¡®add to cart¡¯ on the B-rank Item Box skill, giving him 40 slots but costing a million.


    The attached info page listed that things could be added or taken out at will, seemingly instantaneously, the item just manifesting in your hand. Now, he didn¡¯t know if that included his Psyhands but even if it didn¡¯t, it was a worthwhile investment. Especially when combined with his Invisibility skill.


    Another thing added to the list was a boon for Dia, Iron Fist, it increased the base damage of unarmed attacks, this was the closest to swapping for a better weapon before the rest of the math did its thing, and she needed a damage boost. This cost 1.5 million... strangely more expensive than the Item Box. Sam couldn¡¯t get his head around the logic for costs, but he had seen that life-saving or protecting things tended to cost more, damage-deling was probably a second.


    Looking into resource boost skills, more Energy would do him well, didn¡¯t go far as those skills were in such high demand that there weren¡¯t any available. Much of the skill and good item market had been absorbed since the Tower Break, and it wasn¡¯t too different now. Given how rare getting items are, it made sense that it¡¯d take a while to stock back up.


    Armour better than what he had now was also more expensive than he could afford... which almost felt weird.


    ¡°But, is this what you wanted to be doing today? I thought you wanted to relax?¡± Janik smiled jokingly at Sam.


    ¡°I did, I really wanted to. But my mind is racing, I want to test all kinds of things, I want to get back out there, I kind of want to fight... Not sure how much of that is due to my last two months, or just the System affecting me... But I feel I might be sent to another fucking solo dungeon at any time and I want to be ready...¡± Sam¡¯s voice almost grew tired through the sentence. It hadn¡¯t happened that many times, but it was still more than enough.


    ¡°Soooo... we¡¯re not going to watch movies or slack today?¡± Janik confirmed, looking surprisingly eager.


    ¡°Well, I do want to do that as well, but I¡¯m surprisingly up for other things after I spent my 8 million.¡± Just completing that sentence almost felt wrong.


    ¡°What about that sparring? You kind of threatened me yesterday, I want to confirm if you¡¯re full of shit or not.¡± Janik¡¯s wide grin had returned, he looked surprisingly eager for this.


    Sam held back a sigh, he had things he wanted tested, but at the same time, he didn¡¯t want to hurt Janik. If they used one of the fancy rooms that protected you, that could work...


    ¡°Fine, but only if we use those rooms that stop you from getting hurt...¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll get my stuff!¡± Janik exclaimed as he got up from his chair. He had arrived with his gear on him, as most players do, but he had taken it off after they sat there and chatted a while.


    Sighing this time, Sam got up and got dressed as well, he could use the rest of his money later, so he put in the order for the things he had found so far. It was just the two skills but it set him back 2.5million. The thing that felt strange about that was how little strange it felt to use that much.


    It didn¡¯t take long for them all to be properly dressed and geared, since he was getting an item box skill he decided to bring his camping and survival gear as well. Elara hitched a ride with Dia, coiling around her neck and torso like she normally did with Sam.


    They headed down to the desk where you got your purchases first, they used their Skill Crystals and obtained their new skills.


    [ Item Box - B - 40 slot Item Box. Can place and retrieve items with a thought, each slot can hold many of the same items if they are small, and only a few, or one, if it''s larger. ]


    [ Iron Fists - C - Increases Base Damage on all unarmed attacks by 60% ]


    On the way to a fancier training room, Sam tested the Item box repeatedly with one of his cheaper daggers. He quickly found out that this was strangely intuitive, he always felt what was in the inventory and he could manifest it in his hand, or just next to his hand, at a thought. The backpack with its stuff didn¡¯t go in, the bag itself did, which caused everything inside it to drop to the floor. He put the rest into the item box as well just to get it off the ground for now.


    To his extreme glee, he found out that his Psyhands counted as hands, so he could spawn or dismiss weapons wherever a Psyhand was.


    ¡°Duuuude...¡± Sam commented on realizing this.


    ¡°What?¡± Janik asked, looking at Sam with a questioning look.


    ¡°The Item box counts my Psyhands as hands.¡± Sam smiled back, this was possibly huge.


    ¡°Well... that¡¯s terrifying...¡± His tone hinted that this was indeed putting him off, but it wasn¡¯t in a proper negative way, more in a positive and frightened way.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.¡°Oh? How come? I mean, I can spawn weapons wherever my Psyhands are, but that¡¯s not a massive difference from normal.¡± Sam lifted an eyebrow, he understood that this detail was indeed dangerous, as he could just pull out or swap weapons during an attack for incredible versatility.


    ¡°Yeah, but can¡¯t you then just steal every weapon or item in range?¡± He patted the swords on his hips. ¡°If I hold them, you can¡¯t put them in the box... I think, as it doesn¡¯t count as a valid item or something, I read that somewhere but we can find out. But like now that I¡¯m walking and not holding it in my hands when the time comes and I want to pull them, with your range you can just steal them before that.¡±


    This gave Sam many ideas, he had a good point. He expected that people had found ways to abuse this ability in various scenarios, but having as ¡®long arms¡¯ as he had, he could do a lot of stuff with this...


    Pondering the possibilities had Sam not noticed the rest of the walk, so they found themselves in the training room shortly thereafter. Sam snapped out of it and halfway expected to be teleported away to another solo dungeon, as that was what happened the last time he went to one of these, but he was glad to see that this didn¡¯t happen this time.


    This room cost money to rent, due to the resources it used to protect the Players inside. The devices that controlled this room raised a barrier, negating all damage, and letting you do as you want. Though this made things like bleed damage and other things that specifically triggered ¡®on damage¡¯ not work properly, for more active sparrings like this it was a godsend.


    Janik activated it and did a test on himself, stabbing his arm with one of his throwing daggers, and turning around when he was satisfied he faced Dia.


    ¡°So, little lady, we¡¯ll be fighting, but it¡¯s safe, so... please don¡¯t attack me.¡±


    She looked hesitant, looking between Janik and Sam, and as Sam nodded she seemed to be fine with it.


    ¡°I will not fight.¡± Nodding approvingly.


    Sam had a brief moment where he wondered why she swapped between her name and ¡®I¡¯ when referring to herself, was that just a language barrier or something else? Deciding that he¡¯d just ask her later he turned to Janik, who was walking into the room proper.


    ¡°The system should tell us how much damage we¡¯d normally get from this, it¡¯s also displayed on the screen over there.¡± Having pulled his swords he used one of them to point at a large screen high up near the ceiling. It had two entries: J and S, the J name listed a damage value of 5, but resisted by Defence.


    ¡°Ok, that¡¯s fair. So... You want me to just attack you... or you want to do some testing first?¡± Sam asked hesitantly as he manifested his Psyhands and grabbed onto the weapons still sheathed on his body, leaving a few hands free for other uses.


    ¡°I think we can just do some fights first, see if you¡¯re full of shit or not.¡± Janik smiled as he got in a ready position, but as he did he suddenly added more. ¡°Oh! Don¡¯t use that throwing shit, lifting me is cheating... well... it¡¯s not, but we already know that works so let¡¯s not use that for now.¡±


    Sam shrugged, he didn¡¯t feel intimidated in this case, having already scanned Janik and seen what he could do, skill and stat wise, and knowing how he fights, he was surprisingly arrogant in his chances.


    ¡°So, when do we start?¡± Sam asked and got his answer as Janik suddenly stepped forward, launching an attack.


    Sam reacted in a calm and calculated manner. Janik needed to move his legs to get closer, and though he was stronger than Sam was, he was still bound by physics. Placing a Psyhand balled up in a fist just below where Janik¡¯s next step was going to be, as well as placing another hand on the same foot¡¯s ankle and triggering Force Pulse, was more than enough to send that foot sideways, twisting his ankle and having him fall to his face, tumbling along the floor.


    There was no damage done, but before he could get back on his feet there was a swarm of weapons pressing against him, blades and tips against his throat and chest. If he chose to force himself up or struggle to the sides he¡¯d effectively cut himself doing so. Not to mention how easy it would be for Sam to just repeatedly attack him again and again like this.


    ¡°Ok... I didn¡¯t expect that.¡± Janik commented honestly where he lay pinned to the floor by weapons. ¡°I suppose you didn¡¯t lie when you said that you learned a few things in your last... trip.¡±


    Sam winced a little being reminded of that place, a mental flash of the black, polished walls with all those red lights was almost enough to give him a headache even here, standing in a proper room.


    ¡°You need me to hurt you to consider this a win... or...?¡± Sam smirked back, feeling surprisingly nice about himself.


    ¡°No... I think we¡¯re good. But I want to keep trying.¡± Janik¡¯s smile returned now that the shock was over. Sam moved his weapons away, letting him get back on his feet.


    As soon as Janik got to his feet he resumed his attack, lunging from his position with a powerful pounce, removing the need for stepping the remaining of the distance. Sam dropped all his weapons and split his Psyhands up into two groups, each grabbed one of Janik¡¯s swords and bent them outwards. Though this force was not enough to tear the swords out of his hands, as the force was focused on the tips, the extra leverage of the sword¡¯s lengths allowed Sam to easily move them outwards and make the attack fail. At the same time, he had taken care to drop the War-axe within his arm¡¯s reach. Grabbing hold of that he delivered a powerful downward strike towards the defenceless Janik.


    Janik had no chance to dodge or parry.


    [ 106 dmg (168 dmg, 10 Fire, 24 Electric, 96 Defence) ]


    The math displayed on the screen on the wall, the War Axe had a base damage of 120, but since Sam was using his flesh hands he got his physical strength added. And though he was... not strong, everything helped in cases like these. The added 10 fire and 24 Electric damage was on top of everything else and was not affected by Defence.


    Since he was hit during his jump, Janik¡¯s balance was way off forcing him to again end up face-first on the floor, now with a theoretical axe wound in his shoulder.


    Sam let go of the swords, letting Janik get back up properly, but he also took a few steps away as a precautionary thought.


    ¡°Ok... yeah... I suppose that won¡¯t work, then.¡± Janik smiled at his failed surprise attacks. ¡°The fuck is the stats of that axe, it hits like a brick to the face.¡±


    Sam smiled before he stopped several solid steps away. ¡°Why would I tell an enemy anything?¡±


    It was just sparring, sure, but all things considered, until they stopped this ¡®fight¡¯ he would treat it properly, a healthy dose of paranoia in these cases was not a bad idea.


    ¡°If you want to continue, I have a few things I¡¯d like to try out.¡± Sam¡¯s smile faded to intense focus. He could see that this affected Janik as well who traded his smile for a serious expression as well.


    ¡°Ok, I suppose we¡¯ll treat this as a real fight, then.¡± He widened his stance and placed his swords differently, his left hand and foot were leading, pointing the sword towards Sam. His right sword was also pointed at Sam, though at a lower angle beside Janik as he stood.


    [ Activating Invisibility - 10 Energy ]


    Sam could see Janik starting to look around frantically for a split second before he just stared vacantly into nothing, seemingly focusing to sense anything around him. Sam knew he would still make sounds stepping around, which Janik could hear. Dia confirmed this when he tested with her before. He wanted to quickly test one thing, which was to fake his steps with a Psyhand, ¡®walking to the side¡¯.


    This seemed to work wonders as Janik just stood there, then suddenly delivered a few swipes and stabs towards the sound. In his defence, had this been where Sam was walking, he would have hit hard and true. But it wasn¡¯t, Sam hadn¡¯t moved yet.


    Knowing that his weapons weren¡¯t invisible, except the Axe which was the only weapon he was holding personally, he knew that if he picked up all the weapons he would win this round easily. Even though Janik could see the weapons and parry a few, there were just too many of them, even not considering the Static Shock or Silent Killer, this would just be a one-round event. No, he wanted to take advantage of a few tests.


    His survival kit had some rope, this was the next thing he wanted to try out, taking the rope out of his Item Box was silent and remained invisible as he was directly touching it. Now he just needed to have Janik look away so he wouldn¡¯t cut the rope as it came towards him, but this shouldn¡¯t be a huge problem.


    Faking another step to the side, slightly behind Janik, he set his plan in motion.

 Ch.074 - Synergy

    Janik turned towards the sound and delivered two strikes, one at chest height and one at around leg height, a sound logic to make sure Sam wasn¡¯t crouching or jumping out of the way, but instead, he only hit the air.


    With his focus now on his side, Sam sent the rope forward with several Psyhands holding it at different lengths, as soon as it made contact he started wrapping Janik up, tightening after wrapping around as Janik struggled, allowing his mediocre Psyhand strength to do surprising wonders.


    ¡°Fuck... no... shit...¡± Janik exclaimed his dissatisfaction as he struggled to get out or cut the rope before it was too late. Though it wasn¡¯t pretty, after a few seconds, Janik was tied up to the point that he couldn¡¯t even use his swords to cut himself free.


    ¡°Well... That sucked...¡± He added from his helpless position back on the floor.


    ¡°I can continue if you want.¡± Deactivating his invisibility he came back into view, showing that he hadn¡¯t moved. ¡°Realistically speaking, all I need to do is go Invisible and attack you with my remaining weapons. You can see them, sure, but what can you do against 19 weapons.¡±


    ¡°Oh, not much, but that¡¯s what testing and training is for, no? If I can get used to three or four weapons, wouldn¡¯t that make me better than I was?¡± Even tied up he was smiling at his logic.


    And Sam couldn¡¯t fault him.


    Untying him from the awkward position, Sam pondered what else he could do. He had spent quite some time fighting in the Dungeon but had been relying a lot on the normal, or already-confirmed skills or usages of his skills. He had become more effective in how he applied them, yes, but it¡¯s still somewhat restrictive.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go again.¡± Janik looked ready shortly after he was back to his feet. ¡°I know you¡¯ll easily win if you use your weapons, try other things.¡± He smiled, seeming to want to let this be a test for Sam just as much as himself.


    What followed was Janik failing again and again, Sam realised that he was doing roughly the same things each time. Force Pulsing, using his hands to move things around so Janik would miss, disarming or blinding him with a well-targeted pulse. But that was all there was to it.


    If he didn¡¯t use any items like weapons or tools, and if Janik took it calmly, abusing his knowledge about Sam to move slowly and deliberately, then Sam didn¡¯t stand much of a chance. Janik could move his feet slowly and steadily, moving one sword with both hands overpowered Sam¡¯s Psyhand and physical strength, allowing him to ¡®slowly stab him¡¯. All in a training fashion, of course. So the more they tested things the more Janik started to win, though it was usually with the same tactics. Surprise and fast, or slow and steady.


    When Sam mixed in his Invisibility, it became harder, but without much to take Janik out with, it became a kind of stalemate. He couldn¡¯t deal damage with just his Psyhands, so even if he attacked while Invisible, Janik could just stay there and tank it. Sure, it might not be pleasant, but Sam wouldn¡¯t win that fight anytime soon. In the war of attrition, he would win, but this just meant that if Janik wanted to, he could slowly figure out where he was, throw something around until it hit or just luck out. The short was that this wasn¡¯t a good tactic in this training. It could be argued that this was not a realistic fight, and in one way it wasn¡¯t, but he could end up finding himself without items and with his Boost spent, then what?


    Suddenly things changed.


    Janik was standing steady, trying to find out where Sam was, and one of his steady legs was shot to the side with enough force to topple him over as if some strong and heavy person kicked it.


    ¡°Fuck!¡± Janik let out in the air before he landed on the floor with a hard thud. Dropping his swords he grasped his calf. ¡°The fuck was that?!¡± He looked at Sam with a confused anger in his eyes.


    ¡°Oh... I just realised something... dumb... I should have guessed this a while ago but...¡± Sam replied with a sheepish smile, suggesting that he did indeed feel a bit dumb for not realising this sooner.


    ¡°And what is that?!¡± Janik barked as he rubbed the sore spot on his leg.


    ¡°I have been using the Force Pulse many times, often several together. But I have never activated them while actively using the Cluster Strike. I mean... it¡¯s a passive ability that fixes itself but... when I halfway ¡®activate it¡¯-¡± Making air quotes with his fingers he continued. ¡°-at the same time as using the Pulse, it seemed to stack the power rather than consider them individually...¡±


    ¡°You can do that? How many hands did you use on my leg just now?¡± Janik was forcing himself to his feet and test-standing on his hurt leg, it looked like it was still painful so he didn¡¯t end up putting his full weight on it.


    ¡°Well... I had to use the Throwing ability like I originally did to learn the Pulse. The Pulse is an activatable ability that seems to be locked down as it is. I suppose this was more like taking off the autopilot?¡± Sam shrugged, not entirely knowing how this worked. But he thought he was starting to understand.


    ¡°I originally figured out the Force Pulse through doing something like that, which created the new skill. But I suppose it¡¯s like the System making a macro for me... macros are usually very specific, so... Perhaps that¡¯s why I was never able to properly do more than just some light pulses.¡±


    Sam pondered a bit more. ¡°If you think about it, when I hold an item like this-¡± Picking up one of the daggers from the floor, he hovered it in view between them, pointing it to the wall to their side. ¡°-It doesn¡¯t weigh much, but let¡¯s say I was barely able to lift it with one hand... I can still throw it.¡± Activating Force Launch it darted into the concrete wall, hitting some teal barrier before losing all its momentum and falling to the floor.


    ¡°The arc is even surprisingly flat, now... I¡¯m not that good at math but... if my Psyhand can only lift so much, but is still able to ¡®throw¡¯ it, adding extra force into it, then it needs to be capable of much more than just the normal pulse.¡±


    Janik nodded like a sage before responding. ¡°I don¡¯t know more than the normal basic math, this shit¡¯s above me, but I get the logic at least.¡±


    ¡°I remember it being harder to trigger the Throwing pulse on things I couldn¡¯t throw earlier, but perhaps since I know the abilities more now?¡± Sam shrugged, almost looking to Janik for answers. ¡°But, what I did know was four hands on your leg, manually triggering my Cluser Shot ability and manually triggering the Throwing pulse, it looked... interesting.¡± Sam smiled as he replayed the event happening in his mind.


    ¡°Now I¡¯m curious...¡± Janik commented, putting more weight on his leg. ¡°If that was four hands, what happens if you use all of them?¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m not going to do that to you.¡± Sam smiled, getting somewhat eager about what this could do. ¡°But let¡¯s have a go at the training dummy there.¡± Pointing towards a vaguely human-shaped dummy on a stick, looking almost like a high-quality scarecrow.


    ¡°Have at it.¡± Janik smiled, making an ¡®after you¡¯ motion.


    Sam walked closer and wanted to test a little, starting by using four hands on their arms, triggering Force Pulse in the normal way.


    There was a pulse of energy there, which looked and sounded much like he expected, an energy pulse with four knocking sounds on the wooden dummy. It was clear the four hits acted separately even though they happened at the same time.


    He then went through the elaborate process he needed to activate the Cluster Pulse with the same four hands. The pulse both looked and sounded more angry, the wooden sound was more of a powerful punch landing into the hardwood, and the wood shook a bit.


    ¡°That sounded dramatic,¡± Janik commented with a smile.


    ¡°That was just the four I used on you.¡± Sam smiled back before mentally placing all his 40 hands on the same arm and going through the same process of activation again. ¡°This is all 40.¡±


    As the Clustered pulse triggered, all the energy stacked into a single hit, sounding like a mighty thud it broke the dummy¡¯s arm off with a loud crack. It sounded and looked like something strong hit it, something like a horse.


    This gave the two of them a moment of pause, just standing there and looking at the damage as the broken-off arm and splinters fell to the floor.


    ¡°How the fuck is that still zero damage?¡± Janik said in disbelief as he looked at the information screen, displaying that though the dummy visually ¡®took damage¡¯, it didn¡¯t register any damage values.


    Sam had to agree but didn¡¯t voice it. It didn¡¯t make sense.


    ¡°It¡¯s probably just how the dummy calculates things, it might not be... coded... for this kind of damage?¡± He had no idea how this was set up, the fact that the room protected them from actual harm, and the fact that the dummy could take and read damage without ¡®taking damage¡¯, could be somehow messed with in this case.


    ¡°I refuse to test this on you, but... I want to see this on... something.¡± He kind of wanted to go into the starter dungeon where nothing was a challenge, just to test out things, but before that, he had another idea: ¡°What happens if I launch a dagger with this?¡±


    ¡°Two things. First, I absolutely want to see that. Second, didn¡¯t you explain earlier that... you had to use Energy to do these things in addition to using Energy to create them?¡± He sounded excited but also uncertain.


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s true... It used to be like that but, sometime during my last Solo Dungeon, I can¡¯t remember when. It just didn¡¯t use Energy to trigger anymore, but when I trigger it the Psyhand sort of... collapse into the energy needed, I can just re-manifest it instantly so in practice it just removed the cost to Launch or Pulse things.¡± Sam tried to answer honestly but he didn¡¯t seem certain.


    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    ¡°Well... that¡¯s not making me jealous at all.¡± Faking an annoyed face, Janik looked more interested than anything.


    Sam reached out and picked up a cheap dagger, manifesting and placing all 40 hands on it, aiming the blade at the dummy he went through the same process, but this time focused the pulse into the Launch mechanic as it should be.


    The powerful thump sent the blade flying, there was a snapping crackle as it launched, seemingly the very same second it impacted into the wooden dummy with the momentum to dig itself far enough in that even the small crossguard was embedded.


    ¡°Ok... so that¡¯s an improvement...¡± Janik commented after a few seconds of just absorbing this.


    [ 5 Damage ]


    ¡°Only 5 damage with all that?¡± Janik added in an almost annoyance. ¡°With all that force and speed, it didn¡¯t even do more damage?¡±


    Sam pondered for a few seconds and remembered someone on the internet, some gun-nut in videos when he was younger, saying the sentence that ¡®speed beats armour¡¯. It was in the context of some faster ammunition or something.


    ¡°Can you give the dummy a Defence rating?¡±


    Janik nodded and walked over to the control panel near the door. ¡°How much do you want it on?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s start with 1, I want to test a few things.¡± Sam reached out and picked up another cheap dagger as he waited for Janik to be done, getting the confirmation that this was done he repeated the process.


    Activating the Cluster Shot before manually triggering the Force Launch pulse on all his 40 hands on the dagger, sending it flying with the snapping crackle of what felt like breaking the sound barrier, the dagger again embedded itself deep in the wooden dummy with a solid and echoing thunk.


    [ 5 Damage, 1 Defence penetrated. ]


    Sam¡¯s smile grew, speed did indeed beat armour. But he needed to know how far this went.


    ¡°Up it to 20, I need to test a theory.¡±


    Janik did something on the display and gave him the thumbs up. Sam took another dagger and sent it flying like the last time.


    [ 5 Famage, 20 Defence penetrated ]


    This was amazing, Janik looked both confused and excited as Sam picked up a fourth dagger, this time sending it flying with only 19 hands. Though the snap didn¡¯t happen this time, it still caused considerable penetration in the wood.


    [ 4 Damage, 20 Defence. ]


    Picking up a fifth dagger, Sam launched it this time by using 20 hands, the sounds and effects had no visual change to his eyes, but the display showed a different result.


    [ 5 Damage, 20 Defence penetrated ]


    ¡°Bump the defence to 40, if I¡¯m correct the first should be at three, but the second should be at five.¡± Sam wanted to test his theory by voicing it out first.


    Again Janik did his thing and Sam did his two tests. The first he launched with 38 hands, it read 3 damage as expected. The second he launched with all 40, and as expected it ended up as 5 damage.


    ¡°Hah!¡± Sam exclaimed, he was happy that his theory worked out. ¡°I can¡¯t do more damage with that, but the extra speed lets me negate one Defence per Psyhand I use. It might not be worth it for the cheap daggers, and it might be better to just attack with all weapons at once, but it can be good in a pinch.¡±


    Sam knew that using overwhelming damage, with Cluster Strike, would let more damage through, but this sounded like a good thing to have up his sleeve anyway. If nothing else, using it with the now newfound way to use the pulse looked good.


    [ Utility Skills unlocked: Cluster Pulse, Penetrating Launch. ]


    [ Cluster Pulse (Synergy skill): By clustering all pulses into one larger pulse it allows a significant increase in the force of the pulse. ]


    [ Penetrating Launch (Synergy skill): By clustering Launching forces, it¡¯s possible to penetrate the Defence rating of a target. 1:1 per Psyhand used. ]


    ¡°Oh! It unlocked them as... Synergy skills?¡± Sam was happy, it made activating them much easier but he hadn¡¯t heard of Synergy Skills before. The name made a lot of sense but he didn¡¯t know this was possible.


    ¡°That¡¯s great!¡± Janik exclaimed to the new unlocks, and continued after Sam sounded uncertain about the Synergy Skills. ¡°The Synergy Skills are simple... in theory, mostly Mages manage to unlock them by mixing spells like Fire and Air, Water and Electricity or something, but it¡¯s not something most Players can do. The first problem is that you need... well... Skills that synergize.¡± Janik smiled stating the obvious.


    Though it wasn¡¯t the best or most detailed explanation, it gave Sam what he needed. The System could let you make shortcuts, Macros, Utility or Synergy Skills, whatever you wanted to call them but if you found a way to use your skills in different ways that were still supported by their function, you could elaborate on your skillset.


    ¡°I wonder if there¡¯s something else I can do with my available skills, or if I can get something else that synergizes well with what I can do.¡± Sam started thinking about his skill list, including the newly unlocked Synergy abilities, there had to be more ways to abuse the system.


    Turning to Janik, Sam looked at him with interested eyes. ¡°Are there any of your skills that could be used for new things like these?¡±


    Appraising Janik again, Sam started considering what might be possible.


    [ Abilities: Fluidity, Vital Strike, Active Defence, Appraisal (E), Cumulative Strike, Duelists'' Defence ]


    [ Fluidity: Calculate melee of Dex as long as using (a) one-handed sword(s). ]


    [ Vital Strike: Boosted damage calculation. ]


    [ Active Defence: By attacking incoming attacks, the user can parry and deflect the attacks. ]


    [ Appraisal (E): Can see basic health of targets up to +5 levels of the user. ]


    [ Cumulative strike: Calculates total damage done at the same time, before calculating Defence. ]


    [ Duelist''s Defence: Wile unarmed or using Duelist weapons, gain +5 or +20% Defence. ]


    ¡°Hmm, with your skills I¡¯m a bit less sure.¡± Sam continued, getting an uncomfortable look from Janik.


    ¡°I know you can see my shit... and it¡¯s not like I intend to hide it from you but... it¡¯s oddly uncomfortable knowing that you can see everything.¡± He had to end it with a smile but didn¡¯t seem entirely convinced of his own words.


    ¡°Oh, I can¡¯t see everything, I mean, I can¡¯t see your dick size yet.¡± Sam chuckled about Janik¡¯s earlier joke.


    ¡°That¡¯s good, the lie lives on!¡± Faking a victory pose at his magnum dong joke from earlier as well, they ended up shading a 12-year-old-mentality joke.


    ¡°You need more skills, man... Diversify a bit.¡± Sam commented seriously after they had their laugh.


    ¡°Well, gee wow, Sam. I never thought about that!¡± Faking a mocking child¡¯s tone hard enough to make it sound dumb, Janik strongly hinted that this was not news to him. ¡°Some of us have bills to pay, you don¡¯t think I¡¯d get more skills if I could afford them?¡± Ending his statement with a miserable smile. He was more than painfully aware of this.


    Sam could only chuckle in response. ¡°Well... If you want, we could look into if there are some neat skills for you on the market. It looked somewhat scraped, but maybe?¡±


    Janik shook his head while smiling. ¡°I appreciate the thought, but you¡¯ve already given me an armour upgrade, I can¡¯t have you buy me skills. I¡¯m not that easy.¡±


    ¡°Yes, you are.¡± Sam joked back with a dumb smile.


    ¡°Well... I might be, but that¡¯s not the point.¡± Janik chuckled as he joined in on the joke before his expression became a bit more stern. ¡°I appreciate the thought but... I¡¯m not going to pretend it¡¯s not an interesting thought but I can¡¯t just accept that... I¡¯m doing fine with what I have now... sort of. I¡¯m already leaning on you for the Dungeons and Gear... The greedy bastard in me would love nothing more but, my pride doesn¡¯t let me.¡±


    Janik sounded properly honest about his statement, and though they hadn¡¯t spent an absurd amount of time together, this felt like an honest statement. Sam knew that he was somewhat greedy due to his financial situation, but too much was still too much.


    ¡°Well, let¡¯s hope you get something good from the future Dungeons, then. Right now I have a thing I¡¯d like to test.¡± Sam smiled as he looked at the considerable damage he had done with the upgraded Launch.


    Picking up another cheap dagger he faced the dummy properly.


    [ Telekinetic boost active. Time remaining: 40 / 40 seconds ]

 Ch.075 - Burning Money

    The room echoed with the powerful crackling snap of the dagger launching followed by the gunshot-like sound of it hitting the Dummy. The momentum behind the simple dagger was enough to strip both the finger guard and handle of the blade as the flat metal continued through the wood and was stopped by the barrier before the wall behind it.


    Sam and Janik stood there, mouths agape for a few seconds before Sam remembered to deactivate the boost. ¡°I¡¯m gonna need stronger weapons...¡± Sam eventually let out to break the silence.


    Elara didn¡¯t seem to react much but Dia was surprised and confused, Janik¡¯s expression transitioned into excitement.


    ¡°I don¡¯t care if that ¡®just¡¯ does five damage, that looks like it¡¯d murder you...¡±


    Sam didn¡¯t respond but had the same thought. He wondered how the System would handle this. Normally it worked a little on game logic, even if you stabbed someone in the eye, unless you had some eye, blind, bleed or related status effects, all that would happen was normal damage, perhaps a critical hit. At the same time, if you had a bleed effect it could trigger if you stabbed someone in the toe so... it didn¡¯t always work on logic.


    This dagger passed through solid wood with enough force that it ripped the blade out from the handle and crossguard, before passing through the rest of it. He had no idea how that would work on anything fleshy, what about the Rock Golems? Would it destroy even more expensive weapons or was it just that the cheapo ones were the bottom-barrel weapons?


    There were so many questions.


    ¡°Well... That can be easily tested.¡± Sam replied. ¡°Just go in a dungeon and launch a dagger at something, see what happens.¡± He was fine sacrificing a $125 knife for this test. He had loads of them and didn¡¯t use them all either, so it was worth it to possibly destroy one for testing reasons.


    ¡°That¡¯s possible.¡± Janik agreed but his surprised expression seemed to be more locked in wonder and uncertainty.


    ¡°Sam... powerful?¡± Dia asked, having walked up to them rather than talking loudly from afar.


    ¡°Yes, Sam is indeed powerful!¡± Janik confirmed with a wide smile.


    This caused Dia to smile widely and puff her chest with pride, liking that Sam was well-considered.


    Sam had to look into her culture and mindset at some point... He kept thinking that but needed to learn more about her in general.


    ¡°Well...¡± Taking the focus, Sam changed the subject slightly. ¡°I think I have tested what I wanted to test for now. I am enjoying the idea of the Synergy Skills, and I have six million to spend.¡±


    Part of him wanted to return to his room and just relax with Dia and Janik, spending a few days doing nothing. But the more active part of him wanted to continue right away, to get closer to finding out how to... stop this shit. He felt like he might be pulled into a Solo Dungeon at any random time... something he didn¡¯t want. He had gained good things every time this happened but the stress, effort, danger and just generally negative experiences weren¡¯t something he wanted to continue with.


    ¡°Yeah... What a problem you¡¯re suffering.¡± Janik commented with a salty and envious undertone. He didn¡¯t even try to hide that he would love that money, probably without going through the same shit that Sam did.


    ¡°Well, it might be a first-world Player problem, but it¡¯s still a problem.¡± Sam smiled back. Comparing your situation to others would always have someone who¡¯s in a worse situation, but that didn¡¯t change the fact that this ¡®was an issue¡¯, no matter how small or positive it was.


    ¡°True, but since I¡¯m not the one with six million in my account, I want to complain about it.¡± Janik smiled as he sheathed his swords before walking up to the targeting dummy.


    ¡°I... guess that¡¯s somewhat fair. But perhaps you can take my spot in the next Solo Dungeon, I¡¯m sure months in there would work out for you.¡± Sporting some almost wishful thinking, Sam joined him with the dummy.


    Janik was trying to pull the daggers out, but there was no way he was able to do that, they were dug far too deep into the wood.


    Sam placed a hand on them and added them to the Item Box, they disappeared from the dummy and Sam confirmed that it was in his inventory. ¡°Oh, that worked, that makes it way easier.¡± He smiled widely as he reached out a Psyhand to pick up the last dagger, though broken it still had a working blade, and he didn¡¯t need a handle or handguard so it was still fine to keep for now.


    It was probably a better idea to reuse that one for later testing.


    ¡°I say we get something to eat, and you can see if you find something cool on the market in the app.¡± Janik halfway ordered his suggestion as he walked towards the door, ignoring that Sam was cheating with his Item Box.


    The others agreed and they left the room, leaving the broken dummy there for the people to fix, it was a part of the room-rental project anyway, so they¡¯d do a once-over after they were done and handle it from there.


    Doing it simple this round, they went to the mess hall and just got some food there, it was still good food even though it was mass-produced. And as they ate Sam browsed the TAC marketplace for anything special or interesting.


    He considered an S-rank stealth ring, increasing his stealth by 50%, but as all of this was calculated off his base, it didn¡¯t mean +50% compared to today¡¯s boosted skill. It was an easy error to make, but +100% didn¡¯t mean guaranteed or perfect stealth, it just meant double as good as before. So though it helped it wasn¡¯t a surefire way.


    Having his Invisibility, and the Chameleon effect on his armour, he was good for Stealth in a way. Sure, the ring might help him when he moves around, but it wasn¡¯t at the top of his focus just now.


    Going back to the weird items, Sam took a proper look this time. Most weapons still had weird bonuses which lowered their cost considerably, like the weapons that healed on hit, effectively lowering its damage. But one weapon caught his eye.


    The Void Fang, an evil-looking chacram, with spikes and an unnatural glow to it. It was at a significant discount as it would harm the hand that wields it with not only its spikes, but its glow seemed to prick the hand when grasped. However, it was a high-S-rank item with five perks, only one of which had a chance to activate, the other four were permanently active.


    Due to the boons it had, it still cost three million, but it was the only instance Sam had found of a dagger-class item which could do AOE damage, even though somewhat restricted.


    He also got himself a Spirit boosting ring, which only gave him +4 but in his case this was considerable, it did cost 750 thousand, but was worth it.


    Finding a Skill for Dia, allowing her to do bleed damage when she landed hits would be a good boon to her. And in the end, he swapped out 10 of his cheap daggers for 20-dmg ones, costing him a flat million.


    In the end, he had blown $5 225 000 out of his budget, which left him with some money left, but he felt good about the purchases he had made.


    Having put in the order, he put down his phone and looked up to Janik with a smile.


    ¡°Well, I just blew $5.2 million.¡± He was both used to, and surprised by, the ease of using a lot of money on ¡®only a few things¡¯ as a Player, but he wanted to see Janik¡¯s reaction.


    Janik¡¯s eye twitched as he stopped eating for a good solid few seconds, not looking at Sam but rather staring at his food with a thousand-yard stare.


    ¡°A spirit-boosting ring, a skill for Dia, 10 new daggers to swap out the shit ones, and an S-rank Chacram¡± Sam summed up his purchases.


    Using a few more seconds to calm himself, Janik eventually lifted his gaze at the smiling Sam.


    ¡°It... sounds like a good list of things. That sum just... hits my soul a bit, you know?¡± His smile was slowly creeping back, but Sam could tell that Janik was almost reacting negatively on Sam¡¯s behalf.


    Discussing the details of the purchase, Sam explained more about the specifics and details of what he got, and what he wanted to get still, things like chains, wires and whatnot, Janik¡¯s expression eventually returned to his old self.


    Sam felt a bit guilty, he knew that Janik wasn¡¯t exactly struggling with money, at least not as long as they did things together. But he had a harsher responsibility when it came to spending it. Sam could blow it all on whatever, he had housing or could just camp in Aetheria, he had no specific ties in that sense. Janik did.


    Heading back to TAC after they were done eating, Sam decided to take care of the bill to make it a bit easier on Janik. It didn¡¯t change much but he did appreciate the free meal nonetheless. As they got back they headed straight for the market delivery station and got the new stuff.


    The ring just looked like a ring, and the skill crystal for Dia looked like any other crystal, she shattered it like she had done before once Sam gave it to her and told her to activate it. Sam added the 10 new daggers to his Item Box.


    The Void Fang was a sinister, disc-shaped chakram. Its outer edge was covered in curved spikes, and it was made of a void-black metal that seemed to absorb light. Engraved with runes across its surface, the chakram exuded an aura of malevolence. Inside the ring was a secondary inner ring, which looked similar to the outer. The whole weapon had a faint purple and pink glow which trailed after the outer curved spikes, and seemingly created spikes inside the inner circle made of faint light.


    [ Spirit boosting Ring - C - This ring raises the wearer''s Spirit by 4 points. ]


    [ Rending Claws - C - Deliver a claw attack on a target, inflicting bleed. The bleed damage is dependent on the normal damage done (minimum 1). ]


    [ Void Fang - High S-Rank


    Damage: 130


    - On hit, inflicts a stacking Void Rot, dealing 5 damage every few seconds. This lasts up to the wielder¡¯s Main Stat worth of seconds unless resisted. It stacks up to 5 times.


    - 30% chance to pierce shields and barriers.


    - Absorbs 5 health per hit and heals the user.


    - Projects a Phantom Blade when used. The Phantom Blade increases the width of the Void Fang, allowing the user to hit multiple targets if within range.


    - Disables healing effects on hit targets for 10 seconds.


    - The energy within Void Fang is unstable and will hurt the user if proper care is not taken. ]


    ¡°This might be a weird question...¡± Sam hesitantly asked as he faced Janik. ¡°We¡¯re just on the second Floor now and... I know the amount of money I am getting isn¡¯t realistic but... Given how ¡®cheap¡¯ this thing is.¡± Sam was holding the Void Fang with a Psyhand, not caring to hide his powers nor the new item as the desk was in its own room anyway, he made air quotes when mentioning the word cheap.


    ¡°Does that mean that all higher-level Players are swinging around S-rank weapons and items?¡±


    Janik nodded, his gaze fixed on the almost evil-looking weapon Sam had added to his roster.


    ¡°Most of them do, yes. It¡¯s not always easy to get an item with a good set of stats, though S-tier weapons can have five perks, they are not always as well aligned as this one. I have heard of swords with damage bonus to blunt damage, it can work for a pommel strike but it¡¯s not as effective as many other things. It¡¯s worse when it has something random like a club or hammer with a bonus to cutting damage... But in short, kind of.¡± He smiled and nodded sagely at the end of his explanation.


    ¡°I suppose that makes sense,¡± Sam replied. It would somewhat put a cap on the damage output on most people, as you could only wield so many weapons and wear so much gear. Having enough money could let you roll through the starting levels and get to the higher floors faster, but at some point, your ¡®danger¡¯ rating would stop increasing from items and you would have to become smart with skills, get more skills or just continue levelling so you can increase your damage that way.


    Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    In any case, he felt like he was improving, and given how the Psyhands alone would scale as time went on, he would probably not have the same kind of limit as most people... Although his kit would become more and more expensive, hitting frankly idiotic levels as time went on...


    ¡°I think it¡¯s a bit late to go out now, or we¡¯ll have to camp out in Aetheria or find some super expensive place to sleep,¡± Janik commented as he stretched a bit. ¡°It sounds like you¡¯re ready to go, rather than relaxing, but I think we can postpone until tomorrow. I need to tell the kids and prepare them anyway.¡±


    Sam nodded, he had a good point. Though he didn¡¯t mind spending time there, the added danger wasn¡¯t necessary. And since they would most likely skip a few dungeons and grind others... it was probably best to be as well-rested as possible.


    They separated for the night after talking a bit more. Sam put his new stuff into the Item Box and Elara requested to go with Janik to spend time with Grace.


    ¡°Don¡¯t go fucking off again.¡± Janik smiled as he gave Dia and Sam a casual wave, leaving them.


    Sam couldn¡¯t say anything and chuckled as a response instead. The group split up for the night and headed to their respective homes, or as close as one could consider a hotel room home. Dia was again adamant about grooming and cleaning Sam, licking his face and hair. It wasn¡¯t that he was against it, it was just that it still felt weird. But since she could speak now she could explain that this was important to her, it seemed to be a cultural and instinctive way of caring for her mate as well as the practical aspect of it. A shower would probably be better for cleanliness, but in being the one who ¡®cleaned him¡¯ she would also give him some of her scent. Not something he could smell at all but to her and her people this was incredibly important.


    As they continued to talk and explain things, Sam decided to try and return the grooming favour with a brush, it seemed to be well received. She explained more things about her culture, and what different things meant to them, something as casual as petting or brushing had surprisingly different meanings in context like when and where it was done. It put the head patting into context as well. Sam thought it was a random touch or reward, but it meant more than it seemed, it was tied to her ears, and touching them was not allowed by just anyone.


    The rest of the evening disappeared fast enough and the morning came with the same suddenness as always.


    Waking up and checking his phone, Sam found a text from Janik requesting a poke back when they were ready. Setting a time to meet up they went through the normal morning process and ended up eating breakfast with Janik in the TAC mess hall.


    ¡°Glad you didn¡¯t disappear this time.¡± Janik joked as he sat down with his food, Dia and Sam had already found a place.


    Elara slithered off his arm, onto the table and back to Sam like normal as Janik spoke.


    Sam let her climb on board and coil herself around his neck and shoulders as he replied.


    ¡°Same here. It¡¯s not exactly a vacation when I go away. It might sound good to be on a ¡®deserted paradise island¡¯ until you consider it¡¯s covered in mostly PvP fucks.¡± He smiled back, meaning it as a joke even though it was factually true.


    ¡°Yeah, that makes sense. But at least something good came out of it, right?¡± Janik nodded towards Dia, who had placed the cutlery aside and was eating her food like an animal straight off the plate, she didn¡¯t notice the attention.


    Sam smiled with a nod, he did indeed get something good from the Island. He still wasn¡¯t too fond of the island itself. ¡°That¡¯s true, but I¡¯m fine not going back...¡± Sam replied, silently wondering what happened with everyone else who was there.


    According to the reward, everyone should have been allowed to leave, he didn¡¯t know how many took that exit but that wasn¡¯t his problem.


    ¡°So, where are we going today?¡± Sam smiled as he changed the subject. He had intended to sleep for a week but two days and some training felt surprisingly enough.


    The proof of good rest vs a lot of rest.


    ¡°I checked the guide material regarding the Second Floor. It follows the same rough structure as the first one. Our levels are in the low 20¡¯s. The second floor is roughly in the 20-40 level range, so even if we rush to the end and somewhat beat it, going to the third Floor where things start at level 40 is not a good idea... But I think we can skip a few Dungeons and go for a higher level one, I mean... you just rushed the first one so many times I lost count, we might as well take the jump¡± Janik placed his phone down and pointed around at various prepared info pages, as well as bringing up a map that just looked like an aerial view over mountains.


    Which it was.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine trying a higher dungeon, we¡¯ll do it carefully the first few times, rush it a few depending on how it feels, and go from there.¡± Sam nodded in return.


    Though he looked like he was taking this calmly, and he sort of was, internally he wanted to just go to something much higher. He felt arrogant and confident, but he didn¡¯t want to overdo it and die. But having done the math with the new weapon addition and the new things he could do... he couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit up there.


    ¡°Sounds good. We can start with the Mountain Fortress. The Dungeon¡¯s main problem is fall damage as Golems will push or throw you off, and harpies have wind attacks that might knock you down. Though their wind attack has a range, which is shorter than yours, I think it¡¯s worth giving it a test.¡± Janik smiled. ¡°Besides, if it looks bad we can always just leave it, as it doesn¡¯t lock us in.¡±


    Sam didn¡¯t see a problem with this, it would again put heavy reliance on him doing most of the things but... that was kind of how this was working.


    ¡°There is a bridge on the way to the fortress that tends to get most people,¡± Janin warned as he scrolled down to find a picture to display a stone bridge without railings or anything to hide behind, a smooth and flat bridge over a chasm. ¡°The Golems throw rocks at us as well, but I think we should be fine if we get over there fast enough.¡±


    This sounded almost out of character for Janik, it had too many easy deaths, but there had to be something extra Sam didn¡¯t know, he had come to trust Janik¡¯s paranoia when it came to planning out things.


    ¡°What about the boss?¡± Sam asked, having Janik scroll a bit more before answering.


    ¡°That is the main issue, the Forge Keeper,¡± Janik landed on a picture of a large metal Golem, looking to be made of almost molten metal kept in check by stone. ¡°Though in general, it¡¯s a normal golem, the extra fire damage makes it problematic for melee fighters. Mages tend to take it out fast enough as long as it doesn¡¯t get hits in on them. It¡¯s slow but very strong, decent defence and a high health pool.¡±


    Sam saw a few numbers as Janik scrolled past. A defence of 100, high health, fire immunity and general elemental resistance. That latter one was going to be a slight problem but at the same time... His damage was considerable at this point.


    ¡°I think we¡¯ll be fine. It has elemental resistance but not immunity, and though it has fucking 100 Defence, didn¡¯t you have a gazillion damage?¡± Janik continued ending with a joke-toned question.


    ¡°Not exactly, but ignoring elemental damage altogether, if everything hits I have 820 damage,¡± Sam answered the question. This meant that once 100 was absorbed there were still 720 left. From how he understood Elemental resistance was that it would resist a percent of it, meaning that there should still be some making it through.


    ¡°I think we¡¯re fine, then.¡± Janik smiled as he got up, taking his trey to a return station as he was leaving. ¡°Let¡¯s go and see how you¡¯re doing.¡±


    As Dia and Sam joined him in leaving, heading for a hardware store before going to the Tower, Sam appraised them all, wanting to get a rough idea of where everyone was before they continued their progression. After all, he might intend for a more rapid progression than Janik wanted, so he should know where they are and keep track of things so he doesn¡¯t leave them behind or jump in too deep.


    [ Sam Carter - Telekinetic


    Level: 22


    STR: 5


    DEX: 5


    VIT: 5


    SPT: 44 (+4)


    HP: 240


    Defence: 55


    Damage: 820 + 164 Electric (Thunderous Blow) + 10 Fire (Ember War-axe) + Static Shock.


    Abilities: Energy, Improved Psyhands, Force Pulse, Improved Weight limit, Silent Killer, Telekinetic Boost, Spiritual Health, Clustered Strike, Static Charge III (C), Thunderous Blow (D), Appraisal (A), Vital Recovery (B), Invisibility (A), Item Box (B), Active Defence, Cluster Pulse, Penetrating Launch.


    Gear: 2x Ring of Minor Stealth (E), Ring of Spirit Boost (C), Chalice Signet (D), Luminous Band (C), Ironclad Bracers (C), Flash Step Shoes, Wraith''s Shroud (low-C).


    Weapons: Void Fang (high-S), Ember War-axe (low-D), Obsidian Warblade (high-D), Moonblade (low-D), Shadow Fang (high-C), Vampiric Dagger (low-D), Bleeding Edge (high-D), High-E-Rank daggers, Low-D-rank daggers. ]


    [ Dia - Beastfolk (B), Martial Artist


    Level: 17 (capped to Player Sam Carter¡¯s level -5.)


    STR: 4


    DEX: 18


    VIT: 19


    SPT: 0


    HP: 210/210


    Damage: Punch 73, Kick 87, Bite 110, Claw 87.


    Defence: 60 (+20% Evasion)


    Abilities: Improved Perception, Improved Stealth, Natural weapons (Bite, Claw, Kick, Punch), HP boost, Dex Damage boost, Martial Arts, Spin Kick, Hardened Knuckles, Iron Fists (C), Rending Claws (C).


    Gear: Windwalker''s Feather Signet (C), Phantom Vest (Mid-end C-rank). ]


    [ Elara - Companion (Snake).


    Level: 20


    STR: 0


    DEX: 6


    VIT: 20


    SPT: 0


    HP: 60/60


    Damage: 1 + Venom


    Defence: -


    Abilities: Venom 1, Venom 2, Stalker''s Strike. ]


    [ Janik Znai - Duelist


    Level: 21


    STR: 10


    DEX: 17


    VIT: 16


    SPT: 0


    HP: 200/200


    Damage: 220/220 /22


    Defence: 96


    Abilities: Fluidity, Vital Strike, Active Defence, Appraisal (E), Cumulative Strike, Duelists'' Defence.


    Gear: Fleetfoot Boots (C), Titanstone Chestplate (high-end C-rank).


    Weapons: 2x High-C-rank swords, E-rank throwing daggers. ]

 Ch.076 - Bridges

    Standing in front of another cave opening looked shallow like the others have done so far, with the same shimmering field in front of it.


    The group had decided just to hike it there. It took a while as there was a lot of up-and-down in the mountain region that made up the Second Floor. Luckily, it was surprisingly straightforward. It did, however, take most of the day to just get there, and they met some locals who meant them harm, but they were easily taken care of as soon as they came into Sam¡¯s range. Most had sub-100 health and little-to-no Defence, so they fell fast.


    ¡°I suppose we just go in, then?¡± Janik commented as he took the first step towards the haze-like portal going to the Fortress Dungeon.


    ¡°I don¡¯t see why not?¡± Sam answered as he did the same, Dia stepping in tandem with his steps, which was a bit amusing as he was quite taller than her, forcing her to take longer steps than she would normally do. It seemed this was a thing she was doing to pass the time as they were walking.


    Coming within the range of the field had the familiar window pop up, it was second nature at this point to respond to it and they soon found themselves inside a cave with only a hallway heading forward.


    They could see the hallway winding around at least one corner, without any specific light coming from it, hinting that there was at least more than one turn before outside. The pictures that Janik showed Sam before had outside elements, so they should end up there at some point.


    After walking into the hallway itself, having taken out flashlights, the familiar Dungeon Clear window popped up.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Forge Golem: 0/1


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters: 0/40


    Rewards:


    1 000 000 xp


    1x Random mid-level crafting material


    Chance (2%): High D-tier weapon or armour.


    Bonus rewards for optional step:


    1 000 000 xp


    Random Box - X. ]


    It was the same one as every other Dungeon, the only change was the XP, which was very interesting! He didn¡¯t know how much XP there was for the dungeon monsters, or boss, just yet. But this sounded like it could be a good place to grind some progress, depending on how easy it was.


    ¡°Should we just do this as normal?¡± Sam asked as he brought the swarm out of storage. Leading with the new Chacram that looked like it would shred the hand that wielded it.


    Janik nodded, having already pulled his swords. ¡°I don¡¯t see why not. I do prefer the safer route, after all.¡± Ending his statement with a smile, Sam had to chuckle.


    Though he intended to do his normal part, which was to do everything possible, he didn¡¯t intend to force his allies into danger unless needed. So pushing on with his cloud of blades hovering around him they rounded the next few corners.


    It didn¡¯t take long for them to enter into a larger room, much like the first Dungeon of this Floor it had a Golem standing on the floor and two Harpies perched on some larger stones.


    [ Storm Harpy


    Level: 30


    STR: 4


    DEX: 20


    VIT: 12


    SPT: 1


    HP: 80 / 80


    Damage: Claws 100, Burst of wind 10


    Defence: -


    Abilities: Burst of wind, Hovering, Dex damage bonus. ]


    [ Burst of Wind: Creating a powerful burst of wind, hitting a target can knock them back. The wind destabilises after 10 meters. ]


    [ Golem


    Level: 30


    STR: 15


    DEX: 1


    VIT: 20


    SPT: 0


    HP: 440 / 440


    Damage: 80


    Defence: 20


    Abilities: HP bonus, Str damage bonus. ]


    ¡°They are quite similar to the others, just instead of bats and echolocation, it¡¯s harpies and a wind knockback,¡± Sam commented. He knew that Janik¡¯s Appraisal only worked so well due to its limitations, but Sam¡¯s didn¡¯t have the same issue, so it was his time to share.


    ¡°The Harpies are dexterous, can knock you back with the wind, they have 80 health and no Defence. The golems are strong, 400 health and 20 Defence. They are all level 30.¡±


    ¡°Ah, that¡¯s no problem for you, then. Right?¡± Though Janik sounded confident at first he ended with a questioning tone, seemingly more to know if he needed to get ready or not than really doubting Sam.


    ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t imagine this being an issue.¡± Sam split his weapons up into three groups, the main group had the named weapons to deal the most damage to the Golem, and the other weapons was split up between the Harpies.


    The main reason for the weapons against the harpies was to trigger Static Shock, as a triple pulse would handle most things in there.


    Everything hit, and the Void Fang even triggered its Defence ignoring, this easily triggered three Static Shock pulses, and though the Harpies weren''t close enough to the Golem to be hit by the Pulse from it, they were close enough to each other to be hit by those. All three targets died in one attack, the Golem crumbled like the ones did in the first Dungeon on this Floor, and the two Harpies fell to the floor limply.


    [ Experience gained: +82 500. ]


    Dia didn¡¯t wait and got to work gathering the cores, this time they brought the picks for the Golems, and the Harpies were just normal fleshy creatures, she had no problems with either of them.


    ¡°Well...¡± Janik started with a small pause before he continued. ¡°That doesn¡¯t make me envious at all...¡± His tone was monotone and deadpan. He never hid the fact that he was envious of Sam¡¯s powers, but it seems that he sometimes got a refresher he might not like.


    ¡°I could have taken them but that would be like... One at a time, perhaps the Harpies in one move, then two or three hits on the Golem, not counting if I get hit...¡±


    ¡°Well, even if you did get hit, with your Defence they wouldn¡¯t even get you,¡± Sam commented back. With Janik¡¯s Defence of 96, the damage of the Harpies would barely go through.


    ¡°True... but that thinking gets you killed, a crit or two and pop; you¡¯re dead.¡± To emphasize his point he used his hands, still holding his swords, to simulate something exploding out of his chest.


    ¡°Yeah, been there... It¡¯s not as fun as it sounds. And it doesn¡¯t really sound fun.¡± Sam thought back to not that long ago before he started getting good gear and higher health. He was at the mercy of critical hits more than once.


    Janik chuckled and changed the subject back to the matter at hand. ¡°Well, that aside. I¡¯d like to get hit by one of those wind attacks. They do shit for damage but I want to feel just how hard it hits, in case we need to know.¡±


    At first, Sam thought this sounded dumb, but the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. If this was one of the main dangers in this place, then experiencing what it can do to you wasn¡¯t entirely idiotic.


    ¡°Well, the next group, we can leave one and keep it at a distance, see if it does the thing?¡± Sam comments, that they looked light and confirmed their weight by reaching out and lifting the corpse, they weighed less than his normal max carry weight. It wouldn¡¯t be a problem for him to just grab one and keep it at bay.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯d like that if possible,¡± Janik confirmed.


    Since this was a Dungeon with monsters intending to stop them, they didn¡¯t have to wait long before this became a possibility. After another hallway, they came to another opening which led outside. There were three Golems as well as a single Harpy.


    The process was simple, much like before, weapons were grouped up and since the Harpy was out of range of the Static Shock pulse, it made the whole thing easier to handle. Since Static Shock now did 88 damage, triggering it on three targets who overlapped each other meant that this alone did 264 damage. They had no elemental defence and the little weapon defence they had didn¡¯t do much to save them.


    The fight only lasted a few seconds before Sam returned his weapons to the Item Box, since his Psyhands worked for that skill he could just pull the weapons back before grabbing or harassing the Harpy.


    Janik stepped out, making sure he had walls behind him so he wouldn¡¯t be knocked off a mountain, and made sure he was the clear target. Sam and Dia made sure they were halfway in the hallway so they didn¡¯t stand out as a target.


    Angry noises and attempts to attack the unseen force, came from the harpy as Sam somewhat held her in place, just enough so she wouldn¡¯t leave the cave or get close as she was listed to do 100 damage. Though not dramatic in itself it it hit Janik, a good crit could change all that.


    Luckily it didn¡¯t take too long before she let out a kind of howling chant and flapped her wings in a powerful stroke, sending a pulse of wind towards Janik.


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    He had taken a stance and was doing his best to tank it. The wind was surprisingly visible, picking up dust as it travelled and hit Janik. The damage wasn¡¯t enough to get through even relatively cheap armour, but it did knock him back. He lost his balance a little and had to take a few steps back to avoid getting knocked over.


    ¡°Ohshit. That hits hard.¡± Janik commented once he got his footing.


    He was ready for this one and was leaning into it as it came. Had he not done that he¡¯d easily have been knocked over and perhaps even rolled a bit on the ground. On ledges or in mountains this is indeed dangerous.


    ¡°You can take care of that one now.¡± He ended as he pointed at the increasingly angry Harpy.


    Sam let go of the creature and manifested his swarm, there was barely anything left of it once hit by everything Sam had.


    [ Experience gained: +110 000. ]


    Dia went to work gathering the Cores, while Sam walked over to Janik. ¡°So, how was it?¡±


    ¡°It hit harder than I expected. Had I not leant into it I¡¯d be knocked over for sure. It felt like a stomp in my chest, so I¡¯d get knocked off a ledge without much effort. The damage is shit but that¡¯s not the danger there.¡± Janik looked a bit hesitant, and rightfully so. Unless you can fly or halt your falling, then fall damage takes out everyone.


    ¡°Well, I have double the range they do, and they don¡¯t have much health. So I think we¡¯ll be fine.¡± Sam replied. And he was feeling confident.


    The knockback would be dangerous, yes, but if he took care of them before they came in range that would remove the danger.


    Walking towards the opening of the cave and looking outside, the landscape changed dramatically. A vast mountainscape spread out as far as the eye could see. Mountains were covering the horizon in every way, a multitude of plateaus at various heights with smooth bridges stretching between them. There was a bridge leading from the plateau they were on, to another mountain ¡®shelf¡¯ of sorts. Then another went from that to the next, and it went on for several shelves until it landed in the centre of a large fortress wall, looking like someone had taken a castle wall and just stuck it to the side of a mountain. It was too high up for Sam to see anything past the walls, but it was at least clear where they had to go.


    The windy air was crisp, not cold or uncomfortable but strangely clean and clear.


    ¡°Well... I see where we need to go.¡± Sam commented to his group.


    As the others came out to take in the sights, Sam started noting the dotted creatures around the different shelves. He didn¡¯t know how many there were in the Fortress but he could see several Golems on the shelves as well as the bridges. There were Harpies both in the air and perched on various rocky protrusions here and there.


    ¡°Ah.. yeah... well... I¡¯m gonna guess over there.¡± Janik commented like he had discovered the secret as he pointed at the only building in sight.


    ¡°Most likely, yes,¡± Sam replied as if he didn¡¯t get the joke, causing Janik to sigh.


    The group existed the cave mouth to the large open area in front of them, which slowly tapered inwards towards the connected bridge. As they walked towards it, being the only place they could proceed, piles of stones started to collect on the other side until there stood three Golems near other piles of rocks.


    ¡°Ah... there it is,¡± Sam commented dryly, referencing the rock throwing that Janik read out of the guide material earlier.


    One of the Golems, almost to test the metaphorical waters, picked up a rock and like a trained athlete made a powerful throw. The rock, easily the size of a man¡¯s head, soared through the sky heading towards the group.


    Janik and Dia moved to the sides, to avoid its path rather than interacting with it. Sam had a slightly more complicated plan he needed to test before they took to the bridges.


    Readying himself as the rock came closer, he sent his collection of blades towards it.


    [ Active Defence used ]


    The weapons honed in towards the rock and contacted with a surprisingly dull sound, splitting the rock up into enough small pebbles, dust and chunks that it all fell to the ground without any dangerous momentum. As most of it fell into the chasm of the mountainscape, and a few pieces landed on the platform they were standing on, Sam felt confident that this would fix the only remaining problem he had here.


    A part of him also considered alternatives, his Item Box could be surprisingly practical for this as well if needed, just storing a rock and depositing it elsewhere, needing only two hands, perhaps more to make sure, would give him total defence.


    ¡°Well, I think we¡¯re fine here.¡± Sam smiled.


    ¡°Hold on, the fuck was that?¡± Janik barked rhetorically at him as he stepped closer


    ¡°Active Defence, I think you call it something si-¡± Before Sam could complete his response, Janik broke in.


    ¡°You stealing my shit, eh?!¡± There was a hint of a smile in his voice, this was an honest question masked by a bad over-the-top joke.


    ¡°Yes, I am.¡± Sam smiled and lifted his eyebrows once in a challenging manner. ¡°What are you going to do about it?¡±


    ¡°Oh, gonna praise you, that¡¯s amazing!¡± Janik changed the tone of the conversation from joking confrontation to happiness. ¡°I didn¡¯t know you learned how to do that!¡±


    ¡°When I was in my last Dungeon, I used some time and copied what I saw you doing. It took a bit of time but... I had time.¡± Sam forced a solemn smile at the end, still not liking his time spent in the last Solo Dungeon.


    ¡°Well, though that¡¯s bad, it¡¯s going to make this dungeon... much easier, right? I mean, if you can handle the rocks... and the Harpies..... and the Golems......¡± Janik¡¯s pauses between statements became longer and longer as if he realised something before he turned to Dia. ¡°Why are we here again?¡±


    Though his tone was sarcastic and joke-toned, it didn¡¯t seem to land well with Dia.


    ¡°Zar brought us, Zar make us strong.¡± She flexed a bicep not showing that much strength, her fighting style was based on speed and dexterity, after all.


    Janik¡¯s smile and expression sank. ¡°Well... yes... I know that but... You need to learn sarcasm...¡±  ending his statement in an almost sigh, he no doubt understood that sarcasm was probably hard for her.


    Sam laughed at their interaction, though as he considered the fact that he was glad they were getting along, his expression saddened a bit as he realised that Janik had spent more time with Dia than Sam had done.


    The fix to that was simple, he just needed to make it up to her, as long as the dungeons didn¡¯t keep eating him, that was.


    A pulse of frustration and anger surged in Sam, deciding to capitalize on it he started walking across the bridge. Knowing that he still had his 44 seconds of Telekinetic Boost, enough to carry all of them at the same time if it came to that, would keep him safe.


    Golems on the other side started doing their thing, picking up rocks and hurling them at him, Dia sounded like she wanted to run in and help but Janik stopped her, seemingly understanding what Sam was planning.


    Rocks were cut into pieces, slowly Sam lowered the amount of weapons needed to break them into harmless rubble. At the same time, he effortlessly took out the incoming Harpies before they were in the range of using their wind attack, which was frankly more important in this context. To test his earlier theory he stored a few of his cheap daggers and used those hands to grab onto the incoming rocks. They didn¡¯t have enough strength to do much but he just needed the connection. Triggering the Storing into his Item Box had them disappear, doing so with another incoming three rocks had them all stacked up in his storage.


    Sam stopped attacking the rocks at this point and just stored them, it was faster and easier, also leaving his weapons free to focus more on the incoming Harpies. This change of pace trivialized the whole encounter. Finding out that the rocks were stacked to five in his item Box, it let him take in a surprising amount of them with the remaining slots, but as they filled up he could just deposit them down the ravines without issue.


    As his steady and calm walk across the bridge came to an end, Harpies almost exploded in the air to blades and electrical pulses and incoming rocks disappearing only to reappear on the edge of the bridge to fall out of sight. He eventually found himself at the end of the bridge, within reach of the Golems. Their slow pace and failing tactic of throwing rocks made it easy to take them out and stop the bombardment.


    A few harpies tried their luck against Janik and Dia, but all they needed to do was to retreat into the cave to force them to get down into their reach or leave them alone as they couldn¡¯t get close, meaning that they were out of harm''s way as well.


    Only a few minutes after they left the cave, had this zone been handled. Five Golems and eight Harpies had been taken out before it calmed down, but at this point, everything was silent again. Though they could see golems on the other ledges as well as Harpies in the air or standing here and there in the distance, it was calm and silent around them.


    Janik and Dia started walking across now that it was safe, or at least seemed safe. They were hesitant and aware even if everything looked clear. A good mentality as a safety precaution.


    It didn¡¯t take long for them to get all the way across, which had them all look happy before Janik¡¯s expression faded slightly.


    ¡°You know, seeing you do all that, doesn¡¯t affect my envy at all...¡± His tone of voice was overdramatically deadpan and fake-annoyed to further his envy in a sort of odd compliment to Sam.


    This was emphasized by his smile returning right after. ¡°But it does make it easier for us.¡±


    Sam had to chuckle at his expression, but it did make him think when Janik explained earlier that Sam was cheating. Ranged attacks like bows, thrown or magic would most likely take care of the Harpies easily enough, but tanks or defensive Players had to get across and take the Golems. Everything costs resources. It was hard to not let this go to his head.


    Shaking the thought out of his mind, he turned towards the next bridge. They should get to the Fortress easily enough.

 Ch.077 - Fortress

    The group stood at the start of the last bridge, leading over to the drawbridge into the fortress. Behind them were a lot of broken golems and dead harpies. The latter had mostly fallen off ledges and into the ravines and chasms of the mountain ranges, meaning their Cores were not exactly accessible. Dia did her best with what she could reach, and only got her hands on one Harpy, and most of the Golems as their central ¡®torso¡¯ rolled around and off ledges at times. Netting them a total of 10 Golem Cores and 4 Harpy cores so far.


    A problem at this point was that though there were only two Golems tossing rocks at them, they were high on the fortress walls. And since the bridge stopped before reaching the walls as the drawbridge was currently up, they had a slight problem.


    ¡°Well... they are out of my range, even if we get over there,¡± Sam commented in an annoyed tone as he kept capturing incoming rocks. ¡°Let me try something.¡±


    Dia and Janik were standing behind him, looking at him with a curious expression as he didn¡¯t detail what he was planning.


    Having a metaphorical pocket full of large rocks, there was no lacking ammo to try and attack from range. The stones didn''t have a listed damage value, so this was also a good test for the Cluster Launch.


    Storing the remaining weapons, he kept a few hands free to be able to catch incoming rocks as the two Golems up there didn¡¯t show any signs of stopping. Holding a rock with 40 of his hands he did his best to aim, it was a considerable distance but at the speeds he expected this to fly there shouldn¡¯t be much of an arc. Taking his time as he kept up the catching and releasing of incoming projectiles, he eventually pulled the metaphorical trigger.


    There was a dull thumping sound as the head-size rock flew at breakneck speeds towards the Golem. As the Golem was hanging over the wall to throw a rock, Sam¡¯s attack landed in its chest with a sharp and powerful cracking snap sound. Both the rock and the Golem¡¯s chest shattered as the energy transferred and rebounded back.


    The rock was destroyed, but so was the Golem. Sam was surprised, to the point that he almost missed catching one of the incoming rocks. ¡°Dude... That¡¯s a lot of damage for something that¡¯s supposed to not do damage.¡± He commented as he took a rock out of storage to re-inspect it. There were no values attached to it, it was just a rock, weighing about the same as a washing bucket of water.


    ¡°How does that even work...?¡± He asked hesitantly to nobody in particular.


    He didn¡¯t get any responses.


    Attempting to hit the other one needed a few tries, a bit off on timing or just simply missing had the rocks zoom past it into the mountainside, or hit the fortress wall, in both cases, it shattered completely.


    The fourth attempt hit the Golem, shattering them both.


    As the incoming rocks stopped falling, Janik moved up to stand beside Sam. ¡°I can see why people don¡¯t like this Dungeon. It¡¯s short and relatively simple, but everything can in theory take you out right away if they knock you off. Ranged attackers can do their thing, as can mages, but they all run out of resources. The XP is pretty good for the relative simplicity of the Dungeon, which is why it¡¯s sometimes run by mages a few times but...¡±


    Sam could tell Janik was hinting at the repeated comment about resources and running out. Mages might take out the monsters in here easier than Sam could, not to mention more reliable at high range, but they ran out of mana. There was also a seemingly endless supply of rocks being thrown his way, if he took advantage of that perhaps he could find a good way to speedrun this place.


    ¡°So, how do we open this thing?¡± Sam asked his group as he walked the rest of the bridge, stopping far enough away that it didn¡¯t feel that the drawbridge would hit him if it fell.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s held up by those chains, no? There has to be something moving it.¡± Janik analysed as he looked around. ¡°We just need to find the mechanism.¡±


    ¡°Or.¡± Sam started as soon as Janik was done. ¡°We cheat.¡±


    Taking out a stone from his storage, he took his time and aimed at the connection point in the woodwork where the chain was fastened.


    Using his full 44-hand pulse he sent it flying after a moment of aiming, missing the first four times he made a hole in the drawbridge, removed its corner as well and made a few solid dents in the wall before he finally hit the point. The hit tore the plate it was connected to out of the woodwork with severe force, sending it mangled into the wall before the drawbridge creaked from the uneven weight on the remaining chain.


    Hitting the other point happened on the first try, a lucky shot but it looked amazing as the rock soared through the sky and destroyed the whole thing. The drawbridge, now free from its lifting chains, came slamming down onto the mountain bridge with a loud crash. Sam was a bit surprised that it didn¡¯t take more damage from it as it still looked traversable and safe.


    ¡°Universal keys.¡± Sam smiled, feeling a bit proud of his jokes and actions.


    ¡°That works, though I¡¯m sure the guide had the intended way written, but I suppose we don¡¯t need that now.¡± Janik smiled in response.


    Sam started walking across the bridge, feeling safe that he¡¯d be fine regardless. If it crashed down he hadn¡¯t used the Telekinetic Boost yet, and with it, he could lift all of them at the same time. Having briefly tested this in private he found it wasn¡¯t an issue to fly with it. It almost felt like moving an action figure around in the air, the main problem was the 44-second duration, so he didn¡¯t want to overuse it.


    Though, thinking about it now, he needed to test the speed he could get at some point, just over water or something so he would be safe when it expired.


    Finding himself safely on the other side of the drawbridge, Sam passed through the large archway into the Fortress proper, coming into a courtyard he found five Golems and two harpies. The harpies came flying towards them but were easily cut down as soon as they entered Sam¡¯s Area, the Golems threw a few rocks before they started moving towards them but between the incoming attacks from Sam and the triggering of Static Shock, they all fell before they could do anything worthy.


    ¡°Is it just me or... are the Dungeons getting almost boring...¡± Sam felt that though this Dungeon had a neat premise and danger, it was just a bit too easy. The XP came running in, the rocks were useless and... he fell into the trap again of expecting everyone to have it similar to him.


    Janik turned towards him but was stopped before he could reply by Sam. ¡°Yeah... yeah... I spoke before I thought about it. Resources, damage output, me being weird, I get it.¡±


    Not looking back at him, Sam stepped further into the courtyard, letting Dia do her thing with the cores before properly moving on.


    But this did bring his thoughts back on things. He didn''t want to dive head-first into danger just to make things interesting, that¡¯s just what the Entities wanted him to do. If he wanted to survive this thing he needed to keep a cool head. Janik also mentioned that they were geared better than normal for this level. Assuming lower Defence ratings meant that the attacks from the mobs in here would hit harder, same with the first Dungeon on this Floor. Adding that they started having Defence ratings meant that lower damage outputs would start being a problem.


    Taking Janik as an example, his output was over two weapons, totalling 460, which was above average in damage. He could one-shot a Golem, just barely, but that meant that he had to go close, perhaps get hit and if he didn¡¯t have as good armour as he did... adding the Harpies and... this stacked up fast. Ranged attacks excelled but always had a cost, be that material as ammunition, both exertion and ammunition through throwing and mana in magic. He got it, he did. But a weird downside of his situation was that this was feeling somewhat... boring. Perhaps that was a side effect of the last Solo dungeon.


    Even if he had thought about this again and again, and that Janik had commented on it more than once, there was still something in the back of his mind that made this odd. He had a goal in mind but to get there he needed to... find out how to get there. The only thing he knew was that he needed more power, and that meant more grinding. He knew that he could just go invisible and attack things that way, but this made the others into targets and it was easier to handle things knowing he was the focus, but perhaps they should make a tactic based on that if they were to grind this place.


    Before that even became a topic of discussion, they needed to complete it once. Once Dia was done with the cores they moved onward, there was a door at the end of the courtyard.


    ¡°In there is the boss,¡± Janik started as he looked at his phone while walking, having only one sword in hand, the other sheathed at his hip. ¡°The Forge Golem, a few normal Golems and a few Harpies. The numbers change from run to run but something like that.¡± Putting his phone back in his pocket he pulled his second sword again.


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Sam was mentally prepared to do most, if not all of it this round as well, since that was somewhat the way of the group. This could sound tedious, but for several reasons; he kind of liked it. Not only did it keep him at his best, and let him improve himself, but it also let him keep his allies out of harm''s way as much as possible. It was also amusing to stick it to the ¡®balance¡¯ that the Entities had set up with the Tower System. He knew what the System was for, and if he could do things at a higher level than he should be doing, and safely, it felt like a good start.


    But for now, they had a boss to handle. Getting to the door and opening it they saw a small field in a tiny room behind it, it was something like the boss room in the first Dungeon on this level. Probably so ranged attackers and mages couldn¡¯t just take shots through the door and attack it, which was a shame as it was exactly what he was planning to do.


    ¡°We go in, do our best and if needed, exit the Dungeon if it looks dangerous,¡± Janik explained.


    ¡°Before that I have a simple question,¡± Sam started. ¡°If I go in alone and take care of this, will you still complete the Dungeon?¡±


    ¡°I... don¡¯t think that¡¯s a good id-¡± Janik didn¡¯t sound like he liked that at all, but Sam interrupted him.


    ¡°I can go invisible and just attack while moving around, they don¡¯t have the echolocation thing that the bats have, I might be entirely safe. And since my invisibility or attacks don¡¯t use mana, it¡¯s pretty safe.¡±


    Janik sighed. ¡°First of all. Yes, even if we stay out here, we¡¯ll get completion, even for normal kills and everything. But, we also have no insight into what¡¯s happening, there is no communication, so if you suddenly need help we won¡¯t know.¡± His voice was already worried, not seeming interested in even trying.


    ¡°Ok, that¡¯s fair. But I assume we¡¯ll be grinding this thing if it goes well,¡± Sam smiled feeling like he had already found out the easiest tactic in this place. ¡°Then I can do it alone the next round.¡±


    ¡°Hmm...¡± Janik replied with a thoughtful tone, using a few seconds in thought before replying. ¡°I suppose that depends on just how easy things are... If so I say we all go in now, you try your tactic and if it turns out good we can talk about it.¡±


    Sam smiled, this was good enough for him. He didn¡¯t know the statistics on the Boss yet, but he didn¡¯t imagine it would be too problematic. Also wondering what kind of damage he could do with one of the golfball-sized steel ball bearings he got at the hardware store when launched with Cluster Pulse. When he used Penetrating Launch earlier, it used an item to try to cause damage by penetrating defence. But, using Cluster Pulse seemed to become a physics attack rather than a System attack. If that wasn¡¯t the case, then he couldn¡¯t have killed the Golems with one rock.


    This didn¡¯t cause damage to the dummy... or rather it didn¡¯t display any numerical damage value, but it lost an entire limb so it did something.


    ¡°Ok, let¡¯s go in. I want to try to launch a steel ball at it, if that fails I¡¯ll attack normally.¡± Sam was eager and excited, something Janik seemed to notice.


    ¡°Fine, but before we go, know that this Boss has some tactics. It has high defences and a lot of health, the guide said something like 100 defences and about a thousand health. That¡¯s a hard target to damage... usually..¡± Janik had a judgmental look at Sam before continuing. ¡°To work around this, it¡¯s covered in lava so if you can get it over to the water inside the room it¡¯ll solidify and supercool or something, after that, it¡¯s much easier to damage. It still hits hard, though, and the room has lava streams and is... hot... ¡± He ended with a somewhat uncertain tone.


    Understanding the numbers, 100 defence was considerable, and running around in a room like that was quite dangerous. All in all, it sounded like a pretty harsh boss to fight against, perhaps that was another reason this Dungeon wasn¡¯t done that often.


    Explaining the tactic to Dia, they entered as they had done in the other Dungeon many times before. Passing through the warm light before finding themselves elsewhere.


    The room they landed in was unbearably hot, it was like stepping into the bold sun on a tropical island in the middle of the day. They were in a massive cave, with enough room and height for the creatures in there to attack and throw things. The floor had streams of lava flowing slowly back and forth, a few locations around the room had small streams of water freefalling out of rough holes in the ceiling into holes in the floor, the heat evaporated enough of it to make the air in there densely humid.


    Around the room were four golems, two harpies took flight from their perches and a massive 2-man tall golem, made of the same stacked stone construction but with streaks of lava through its body, rose from some Golem-seated position.


    Sam didn¡¯t wait with his test and took out a steel ball bearing, aiming it at the Golem with all his 44 hands he took a few seconds before launching. The first two shots missed and slammed into the mountain wall behind it, it wasn¡¯t until the third one landed properly in its chest. Though it seemed like it broke off a tiny chip of its rocky surface, it didn¡¯t seem like it did much at all.


    [ Forge Golem


    Level: 40


    STR: 15


    DEX: 2


    VIT: 20


    SPT: 0


    HP: 1000 / 1000


    Defence: 100


    Damage: Slam: 100, Throw: 100


    Abilities: HP bonus, Str damage bonus, Elemental resistance. ]


    [ Elemental Resistance: Takes half damage from all elemental damage.]


    There was no damage done to it from the steel ball bearing, Sam briefly considered trying with Telekinetic Boost, it would increase the force tenfold but he also felt that a solid stone creature like that might not take enough damage. For now, he could try his other tactic.


    ¡°Spread out!¡± Janik shouted to them, which had Janik and Dia step away from Sam as the Forge Golem picked up a large stone from the ground.


    As it aimed at them and reeled its arm back, Sam activated his Invisibility, dedicating 10 Energy to it so he¡¯d go entirely invisible. As he moved to the side he saw hesitation in the Forge Golem¡¯s throw before the large rock was launched.


    The aiming point seemed to be where Sam stood before, meaning it was completely wasted. Sam started running towards the boss, taking detours towards the two Harpies, imagining they would be the most problematic targets for the others to handle as it was more than tall high enough in there for them to never have to enter the range of the others.


    Everything in here started aiming for Dia and Janik, Dia had no problems dodging everything, and Janik seemed to be a bit more uncertain about things but that seemed to be a lighting issue. The room was illuminated by the lava flowing everywhere but it wasn¡¯t enough to see as well as normal. And they did just come from outside and daylight. Dia was much more adept at that and handled it with little effort.


    Janik still managed to avoid getting hit, sidestepping the incoming rocks before they landed. The focus on them made it even easier to take out the two Harpies, and one of the Golems, on the way to the boss. The harpies didn¡¯t know it was coming, Sam called out his weapons into his Psyhands from his Item box, attacked, and then put them back. A swarm of weapons suddenly pop out from nowhere, exploding the poor creature before disappearing again, only for it all to happen again. All without a single glimpse of where the user was.


    Though Sam did break stealth, or rather, shouted from wherever he was, every time he saw any of the other targets throw something, he quickly changed positions as it didn¡¯t take long before that area became the next target of rocks. This increased the odds of his allies dodging and caused a little confusion with the Dungeon Monsters, a win/win in Sam¡¯s book.


    Sam soon found himself at the rough end of his Area¡¯s reach, well within range to start attacking the Golem, he wondered what 100 Defence and a 50% Elemental Defence would stand up to his onslaught. Based on the math it shouldn¡¯t be a huge issue. Smiling a little to himself in his invisibility, he manifested his swarm behind the Forge Golem.

 Ch.078 - Second Floor Grind

    As the swarm of weapons had manifested in the air behind the Forge Golem, who was busy attacking his allies, Sam ensured that Clustered Strike was active and sent them forwards into the boss, triggering Static Pulse as it landed.


    He had to dedicate 10 Energy to the Invisibility, which removed 10 of his lower-damage-dealing hands. With his current loadout, this made up a total of 95 Damage in weapons alone. Not considering Static Shock or Thunderous Blow, he naturally used his highest-damage weapons.


    One weapon was missing, bouncing off the stone and making up the Golem¡¯s body. The Void Fang didn¡¯t trigger its penetration, but it didn¡¯t seem like it was needed.


    [ Silent Killer activated ]


    Due to Cluster Strike, it all counted as one attack, Silent Killer added +50% to the total damage, something Sam hadn¡¯t properly tested before but hoped this was how it worked.


    The Golem fell in the one attack.


    Its back took enough damage for the central stone making up the bulk of its core to shatter, having the whole creature fall forward into a pile of rubble. By this point, everything in the boss arena had been handled, and Sam stood, invisibly, contemplating what just happened.


    Checking what happened in the logs he could, he found that the collective physical damage done was a neat 800, this was lowered by the Boss¡¯ defence down to 700. The Electrical damage was also halved, from 164 to 82. The Static Pulse did 88, lowered to 44, rounding the total damage to 826, but then this was boosted by 50% from Silent Killer, which as he confirmed, counted the whole attack as one attack, bumping it to 1239.


    Sam was both taken aback but also not. He knew that his method of attack worked around a lot of stuff, but he didn¡¯t imagine that even with 10 fewer weapons, he could do this kind of damage to something with that kind of defence. 100 Defence and 50% Elemental Resistance was huge. But compared to a normal team it started falling into place.


    Considering a party of four, where three had different methods of attack, using Janik¡¯s rough damage of 200-something as a baseline, each attack would be lowered to 100 after the Defence. Sam didn¡¯t know how much damage spells at this level would do but after everything outside they might be nearing low on mana unless they take some time to rest or use potions.


    So three attackers, using one harder-hitting weapon of 200 something could end up doing only 100 per person hitting 300 damage per volley. Perhaps more but Janik did confirm that they were better geared than normal. With good skills or crits, this could change dramatically but.. As far as Sam considered it, his full volley in this round was around 6-7 times that of a normal Player.


    ¡°The fuck...¡± Janik commented after he had scanned around the room with his flashlight, wanting to make sure there wasn¡¯t anything else to blindside them. ¡°Did you just one-shot it?¡±


    Sam disabled his invisibility and nodded towards Janik. He took a moment to explain the math. Partly to share with his party, but also that there was a slight ego-boost in this.


    ¡°Well... that¡¯s kind of terrifying.¡± Janik smiled, seeming to enjoy being on this side of things. ¡°And you say you can remain invisible forever?¡±


    ¡°Not exactly, it only lasts for 30 minutes even if I want it to last longer, but I can just reactivate it after, so in practice; as long as I keep the timer in mind it¡¯s infinite.¡± Sam smiled back, and it was true. Though it wasn¡¯t factually infinite, if he timed the reactivation in the correct moment he would only blip into visibility before disappearing again, and if this was done right it would be practically infinite.


    ¡°However...¡± Sam continued with less enthusiasm in his voice. ¡°I have tested it before and though I¡¯m invisible, I still make sound and other senses can find me.¡±


    ¡°Dia could smell Zar!¡± Dia broke in, having walked closer and decided to become part of the discussion.


    Sam pointed at her in a conforming manner. ¡±Yes, I can¡¯t do much about my smell, I can train and get skills to help with sound, or just stand still. But my Invisibility is only for visibility, which is why it didn¡¯t do much against the echolocation from the first dungeon here.¡±


    ¡°Well... It seems to suit your style a lot, then. But... won¡¯t Silent Killer just keep activating if you remain invisible?¡± Janik asked with an almost suspicious look.


    ¡°I imagine so?¡± Sam didn¡¯t sound entirely convinced. ¡°The wording is ¡®the first attack against an unaware target¡¯. I don¡¯t know if there is a cooldown between attacks but... I suppose it depends on what ¡®aware¡¯ means?¡±


    ¡°Well, that can easily be tested, use one of your shit daggers and test on something.¡± Janik looked excited as he suggested this, almost as if it was Janik himself who was doing the testing.


    Sam was surprisingly flattered at Janik¡¯s continuing happiness on Sam¡¯s behalf, but couldn¡¯t respond with anything besides a satisfied smile. However, his smile disappeared in almost surprise as the System Window popped up.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Forge Golem: 1/1 - Complete


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters: 40/40 - Complete


    Rewards:


    1 000 000 xp


    1x Random mid-level crafting material


    Bonus rewards for optional step:


    1 000 000 xp


    Random Box - X. ]


    A few seconds later, the Random box manifested alongside the XP added to their growing bar. Sam was a bit over halfway to the next level, and looking at Janik with Appraisal active he saw that this was enough to push him over the edge, he was now Level 22 like Sam was, but in the early percent. Like Sam, Janik needed a considerable amount of XP for the next level.


    Elara was getting close, and Dia was still reliant on Sam levelling up first so she was locked still.


    Both of them opened their Random Boxes. Sam got a single Arcane Crystal. Janik got one as well but he also got a mana potion.


    All in all, a bad haul.


    At least Dia was using this time to get the cores in the room.


    ¡°You know, I sometimes hate these things,¡± Janik commented dryly, holding the crystal in one hand and the potion in the other.


    ¡°Tell me about it,¡± Sam replied with even less enthusiasm, having recently opened a... few...


    Janik seemed to catch onto that tone, as he forcefully changed the subject. ¡°So!¡± He turned towards Sam, he put his spoils in his backpack as he continued talking. ¡°Given that you handled the boss in like five seconds, I don¡¯t think you¡¯re going to have problems handling this place.¡± He smiled widely and honestly, referring back to their earlier talk about Sam going in alone.


    ¡°Running this a few times shouldn¡¯t be too problematic, but what about the others on this Floor?¡± Sam wondered if there were more interesting ones or perhaps better ones to run if they intended to grind up in level.


    ¡°From what I can see, getting all kills and doing the whole thing will net us 3 175 000 XP each, I don¡¯t know how much time you¡¯ll need per run but, from what I read in the guides this is one of the easiest ones as it¡¯s quite straight forwards. It has a lot of targets and no weird traps besides the... drop if they get you. A standard tactic is to go in, get outside and snipe things before they get to you. Naturally, that¡¯s a problem to do multiple times but for people who just want a few runs for that day. Now for you.¡± Janik ended with a large smile and an overdramatic gesture towards Sam.


    ¡°Yeah, I get where you¡¯re going with this,¡± Sam commented. This relied entirely on him. He could outrange the knockdown from the Harpies and could invalidate the incoming rocks. Now, if he used Invisibility he could do it even better. His skill set was truly built for this kind of thing.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know how long I¡¯ll use on this, but now that I know how to do it,¡± he mused towards the ceiling, thinking and trying to count time on something he hadn¡¯t done before. ¡°It¡¯s not that long walking, and I don¡¯t need to stop so... 15 minutes?¡±


    He didn¡¯t sound entirely certain, but realistically speaking, it was just 4 bridges, a courtyard and a few caves to walk through.


    This had a wider smile grow on Janik. ¡°So, if all goes well, we... you, can end up with about four runs an hour. So around 12 million experience per hour, as well as a few boxes. I suppose the cores will be lost unless we spend time getting those...¡±


    Sam smiled, seeing Janik¡¯s greed in his eyes was oddly amusing. ¡°If the two of you trail after, you might get attacked since they won¡¯t see me, so it¡¯s speed and XP or take our time and get the cores.¡±


    This put Janik into an internal crisis, ignoring the boss Core they only got 21 of the 40 kills they had. Since a surprising amount of them ended up in the chasm. But the 21 they got was, if the Guide app¡¯s cost was up to date, would net them around $63 000 each. Or at least split up between Janik and Sam. From the expenses they talked about before, this might be able to cover all his expenses for about 4 months.


    ¡°You.... have a good point there,¡± Janik finally let out as he contemplated internally. ¡°This run alone will set me up for a while but...¡±


    ¡°I mean, we can always just hope for something good in the Random Boxes, or you can get some of the cores from the starter targets before I leave the cave?¡± Sam explained as an almost comfort.


    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    ¡°Yeah... That could work! And if you get the cores from the Boss and others in the Boss room, it could make it a little bit better!¡± Janik stated this as a fact rather than a request.


    Though Sam was flinging around a weapon costing almost three million dollars, he still needed money. So he wasn¡¯t against the idea, it was also the most streamlined option with the smallest loss in time.


    ¡°I suppose we can do it a few times, and see how that goes.¡±


    Janik seemed almost happier than Sam about this, having just levelled and considering the speed they had been improving since Sam joined the group must be a rush to him.


    As they were heading towards the exit area of the Boss room, Sam noticed something as he looked at his group with Appraisal still active. He could again see the possibility of increasing stats on Janik. Taking a look around this was the same for everyone else as well, including Elara.


    ¡°Uh... guys,¡± Sam stated as he stopped walking, getting the attention of Janik specifically. ¡°I see the stat increase thing on us all again.¡±


    Janik¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Oh wait, oh, hold on. You can do that +1 thing again on me... us?¡± His greed showed through for a moment, Sam couldn¡¯t blame him but it was still amusing.


    ¡°Yes.¡± Answering simply Sam looked over Dia and Elara as Janik seemed like he needed to get his excitement out of his system.


    Elara got a point in Dexterity according to their earlier agreement, and he put the point in Dia¡¯s Vitality. She was already doing well in health but it felt appropriate to round it off at 20.


    ¡°Do Dexterity, please.¡± Janik finally managed to ask. Sam did as requested to Janik¡¯s almost squee-like response.


    Sam put his point in Spirit, though it wouldn¡¯t give him extra Energy, nor more hands, it did lead the way for a Levelup or the next boost. Not to mention that it did help the weight math.


    Janik snapped out of his glee shortly after, seeming to realize something.


    ¡°I... just thought of something. Won''t they-¡± he made quotation marks around ¡®they¡¯ with pressure on it. ¡°-catch on if we keep doing this?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I have some cloakyness but... not sure how it¡¯ll affect you guys. Since the change is small, perhaps it¡¯ll just... work out?¡± Sam shrugged, he had no idea if this would get them weird attention or not.


    ¡°I¡¯ll admit that I¡¯m conflicted. But considering how... things are run, I think it might be smarter to continue. If the changes are small and gradual, would you notice over time on people you watch?¡± Janik responded, seemingly hinting to the Entities sometimes looking into people.


    ¡°I suppose you have a good point. I think that Elara and Dia might be fine as they¡¯re connected to me, but you¡¯re not... So I suppose you know the risks... So it¡¯s up to you.¡± Sam smiled, somewhat happy that Janik was at least making a properly educated guess on this.


    ¡°But then I¡¯ll let you know whenever I see something like that in the future.¡±


    ¡°Please do, but for now, I guess we have something else to do,¡± Janik changed the subject and smiled at Sam.


    ¡°Yeah, be carried,¡± Sam smiled before he walked into the range of the exit portal, leaving before Janik got a chance to respond.


    Elara and Dia came with him, finding themselves outside shortly thereafter. Janik joined them a moment later.


    ¡°Yeah, yeah. I¡¯ll get you a burger later,¡± Janik responded in a joking tone. Purposely ignoring that a single target taken out by Sam covered quite a significant amount of burgers.


    There wasn¡¯t much discussion needed before they could start. The plan was simple and straightforward. Janik confirmed that even if they remain in the starting area, as long as someone completes the dungeon, kills someone or does something, everyone would get the same progression, XP and so on. Which meant that they just needed to go in with him and he could take it from there.


    He kind of enjoyed the idea of doing this, boosting his party with maximized safety for them all. But at the same time, he did feel a bit weird being the one doing all the work. It was a weird and conflicting feeling, as on one hand, he didn¡¯t care that much about the cores, loot, hoarding all the XP or stuff like that. He just wanted his group of friends and allies to come with him, he was looking forward to hitting the Fourth Floor, where all the cool shit was going down at the moment. But on the other hand, he had his sense of greed, with extra work should come extra rewards. He didn¡¯t want to take a larger share, but at the same time, he wanted one... Having zero doubt that he¡¯d get a larger share if he just mentioned it, he also felt that this would be oddly forced and... he didn¡¯t know how to approach this in a good way.


    They entered the Dungeon like they did before, coming into the same cave as before. Leading down the same hallway with the same turns, and all in all there were no differences so far. There was a single Golem inside as well as a Harpy. As there were no tests intended this time both targets were taken out before they could do anything, the Harpy didn¡¯t even get a chance to take off before it was shredded.


    Dia got to work as Sam walked to the mouth of the cave and looked through the path he¡¯d be taking in a moment. The four bridges lay in front of him, Harpies perched here and there or flying around, Golem standing on the platforms between the bridges, ready to throw their rocks. This view wasn¡¯t entirely bad, Sam liked it a surprising amount. Had it not been filled with death and monsters.


    ¡°Well, I suppose this is the first test.¡± Sam smiled out towards the landscape in front of him.


    ¡°You go, girl!¡± Janik commented back.


    Sam chuckled as he activated Invisibility with 10 energy, going completely invisible.


    The process was almost idiotically effective. Being invisible the only danger he had was his smell and sound, but there were enough passive sounds from the wind and moving Golems to hide his, and the wind also handled his scent. Even if it carried downwind they needed to come in his range to do something about it and... it didn¡¯t end well for them.


    Walking across the first bridge was effortless, the Harpies that flew around had no idea and it wasn¡¯t until he was safely across that he started attacking the Golems. Sam called out his weapons after his Psyhands were in position and ready to strike, as they pulsed with Static Shock and cracked into pieces Sam pulled the weapons back into the Item Box. Only blinking them into existence for a few seconds at a time. This triggered Silent Killer every time, as they died from the one attack, letting him spread out his swarm for extra effect.


    The Harpies came over to investigate, which ended with them exploding in a splurt of blood and feathers before falling limply to the ground, or into the chasm.


    This process continued until he reached the drawbridge, still having loads of Rocks in his inventory, and the ability to pick up more on the way after taking out the Golems, he could take his time and send them flying. He found out that he could ignore them as well as they were hard to hit, focusing on getting the Drawbridge down first and using the stairs on the inside to get up in range and take out the Golems with his weapons instead.


    The courtyard was also unaware of his presence, though it was a bit more silent nothing could find him in time before they were shredded, leading to a record completion time so far, finding himself with an open door into the Boss room and everything dead behind him.


    Entering as agreed on, he found himself in the once-before-visited lava and water boss room. Nothing could pinpoint him at all, almost stressed throws towards the rough area of the first killed Golem, the next Harpy, and so on, didn¡¯t even land close. The sounds of the rocks landing and rolling were more than enough to mask his footsteps.


    Taking out the targets as he got closer to the boss was almost amusing to Sam, their faceless ¡®faces¡¯ felt panicked as he took them out one by one. Strangely this felt nice, it felt good wading through them like this. It was almost like he got a tiny revenge on the System, even though these specific targets had nothing to do with his Solo Dungeon adventures.


    The boss was taken out with a single, Invisibility-altered full volley like before, leaving him with plenty of time left on his Invisibility. After a few runs to get into it, 15 minutes would probably be rather correct.


    [ Companion Elara, level up +1! ]


    The Random Box landed in his hands, opening it right away only gave him a single Aether crystal, netting him two from the completion of the Dungeon, as well as the few cores he got from inside this room before he left.


    Coming outside he found Janik standing there, having already exited using the passive Dungeon Escape method, since there was nothing else to do in there it wasn¡¯t like he lost anything. Dia and Elara were bound to Sam and came out with him.


    ¡°So... That was strangely uneventful,¡± Janik smirked at Sam, who had done everything on his own.


    ¡°Yeah, kind of,¡± Sam replied, not mentioning that he somewhat liked being the invisible force of death that washed through the Dungeon.


    ¡°You game to go again?¡± The duelist was bagging three Aether Crystals, hinting that his Random box gave him two of them. Dia happily gave Sam the Cores she had gotten, having Sam add them to the pile.


    Entering the Dungeon again, the grind started.

 Ch.079 - Planning next step

    ¡°Well... I think it¡¯s time for a break,¡± Sam commented, looking somewhat worn.


    ¡°What? Why? We have done nothing but relax for the last 8 hours.¡± Janik responded with a shit-eating grin.


    Sam could only look back at him with a deadpan expression. ¡°I should charge you for these 30 runs.¡±


    The difference between them was that Janik and Dia had just been relaxing in the first room of the Dungeon for the last 32 runs, whereas Sam had been invisible and re-doing the same run for the last full workday. And though using his Skills didn¡¯t tire him, walking the same path repeatedly meant that he had been walking for 8 hours.


    ¡°I¡¯d prefer if you... don¡¯t?¡± Janik commented back almost as a question.


    Sam knew that Janik wasn¡¯t dumb enough to assume that this effort didn¡¯t have worth. According to Janik¡¯s repeated explanations, not many can do this with as little effort as Sam needs to put into it.


    This had netted them a total of 39 600 000 XP each, counting all 40 kills per run, and the 2 million for completing the Dungeon and the Bonus objective.


    Everyone had levelled from this.


    Elara levelled twice, counting the level she got from the first test run. Sam was planning to put her points into Dexterity as they originally agreed, but Elara wished to have it put in Vitality, she wanted her Venom to increase in potency. Sam didn¡¯t argue.


    [ Elara XP to lv.23: 8 975 018 / 20 971 520  ¨€¨€??? ]


    Sam¡¯s level was simply fixed, there was no reason for him not to put it in Spirit, giving him that extra point to gain another Energy, not to mention his extra HP.


    [ XP to lv.24: 31 407 724 / 41 943 040 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€?? ]


    Appraising Janik, Sam saw that he put his point into Dexterity, increasing his damage a little bit. His current and needed XP levels put him a bit lower than halfway to 24.


    Dia capped out immediately as soon as the XP share went to her, she was back at full waiting for Sam¡¯s next level before she could gain another of her own. Sam put her point into Dex, increasing her total damages a little bit.


    Having run the place 32 times, had also given them the rewards a bunch of times. Though they only got the core of a few targets each run. The only targets that were always available were the first two in the first room, the seven in the courtyard and the four in the Boss room. The boss itself added to this but everything else had a chance to roll off, so there was a surprising amount of loss of cores through these runs.


    In a few cases, Sam remembered or managed to catch things before they rolled off the ledges, but more often than not he didn¡¯t. But this averages out to 20 normal cores and the boss core each run, netting them a sizeable stack of cores after the 32 runs.


    Each run gave them an Aether Crystal each, and a bunch of Random boxes.


    Sam got the short straw this round, and though he got 3 Health potions, 1 Mana potion and 59 Aether Crystals, he got nothing else.


    Janik got a similar pile of crystals and potions, but he also got a weapon and a cloak.


    The weapon Janik got was a Scimitar, he was quite annoyed at that as it didn¡¯t classify as a Duelist¡¯s weapon, so it wouldn¡¯t properly fit his kit and it would deactivate some of his abilities. But it had a sleek, curved blade with molten orange hues as if there was a fire within it. The hilt was wrapped in charred leather radiant a faint and comforting warmth.


    He was a bit happier about the cloak, it had silvery ripples with a slight shimmer of blues and grey. Along the hem were fine threads looking like lightning, he said that when he put it on it felt like the air changed around him a little.


    [ Emberslash Blade, High-C tier


    Damage: 70


    Burning Strike: Strikes have a 20% chance to set the target on fire for 30 seconds.


    Molten Arc: Critical hits send out a burst of fire in a cone. ]


    [ Storm caller''sr¡¯s Cloak, C-tier


    Storm¡¯s grace: Reduces Electric damage by 30% and increases movement speed in stormy or windy environments by 10%. ]


    The blade wasn¡¯t useless to Janik, but he preferred to keep with the straighter swords of his style that also worked better with his kit. Checking the app and cached market data, the rough price that Janik would get for the sword on the market was around 150-something thousand dollars, though it¡¯d sell for much more than that there was no need to sell it to TAC when he could sell it for around the same price to Sam, and gain the boon of a stronger ally.


    Agreeing on a price of $150 000, Sam added that to a transfer on his phone right away, meaning that it would go through the next time they were on Earth, or within a beacon near settlements that gave some form of data connection. Though this meant that if Sam¡¯s phone had some problems or broke before they got in range, this money would not transfer; at this point Janik trusted him without question. There was also an unspoken comment about the runs done so far, so it felt like there was no need to go deeper.


    One could also argue that Sam could request the blade for free, as a reward for the runs, but Sam didn¡¯t bring that up and took the little discount from the sales price instead. The Emberslash Blade weighed the same as the Moonblade, so it needed two hands to wield properly, at least for now. But it has increased his damage potential slightly, two 20-damage daggers swapped out for 1x 70-damage sword with bonuses.


    ¡°How far are you from levelling again?¡± Janik ended up asking Sam as they were resting. Dia had sat down on the rock next to Sam and pressed herself against him.


    ¡°I need to do it eight more times, so another four hours,¡± Sam replied dryly. ¡°I¡¯d prefer not doing more of this one for a short while.¡±


    Sam had his fill of this Dungeon, though it wasn¡¯t stressful or that dangerous for him, having been through it a total of 33 times had taken its toll. And that was without mentioning about nine hours of walking through all of this.


    Another annoying thing was that he hadn¡¯t seen the Stat-edit icon on any of their Player Statistics, he still didn¡¯t know what triggered this at all. He thought it might be related to killing a boss or clearing a dungeon, but that didn¡¯t seem to be the case.


    ¡°Yeah... I can see that... ¡° Janik pondered a moment before continuing. ¡°This might sound... weird coming from me but, I think with that tactic of yours, you might be able to take on the end-dungeon of the Second Floor, that¡¯d get us to the Third one.¡±


    This perked Sam up a lot, he knew it might be dumb to rush but given the ease, he was doing one of the harder Dungeons on this Floor.


    ¡°Though, it¡¯s going to be much harder. The Dungeons here on the Second Floor start introducing non-combat elements. So far most things could be solved by combat, but now puzzles or challenges are a thing. And the Frostspire Chasm is... well... the end Dungeon here.¡±


    Janik showed Sam and Dia, by proximity, an image on his phone from the Guide app. It was an aerial shot of a glacier, frozen wastelands, snow, and cold, seemingly taken by a drone.


    ¡°It¡¯s at the top of that mountain in the distance there,¡± Janik moved a bit to find a good vantage point and pointed in the distance.


    Sam got up from his rock to see where he was pointing, and in the far distance, hidden in snow and haze was a mountain reaching up into the clouds, disappearing into the sky.


    ¡°Ah,¡± Sam let out a realisation as he saw their next goal.


    Janik got down from the ledge he climbed up on to see properly before he continued.


    ¡°It¡¯s going to take us a few days to go there unless we charter a helicopter or something but that¡¯s going to be stupidly expensive. Then we need to go to the entrance and first at that point-¡± Janik put hard pressure on the word ¡®that¡¯ as he explained. ¡°-we can start the Dungeon. It¡¯s going to be cold, super cold, and harsh. A lot of experienced players have died there from avalanches or local dungeon bullshit.¡±


    Second thoughts crept up into Sam¡¯s mind. ¡°And we have to do this, we can¡¯t just go to the next Floor without it?¡±


    ¡°Yep. The only way to get to the next Floor is to be part of a group that completes the last Dungeon on the Floor you¡¯re on. Rich people pay experienced groups to do it for them, much like you blasted us through this one today. Just sit at the entrance and wait. If you can get hold of a skilled Player with teleport, this can be done very fast but... the cost increases dramatically.¡±


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    ¡°So, what you¡¯re saying is that boosting or rushing costs a lot of money?¡± Sam asked with a sly smirk in Janik¡¯s direction.


    ¡°Yes, the more experience, the faster, basically the more effective the boosting Player is the mo-¡± Janik stopped himself as he finally looked at Sam and saw his expression. ¡°No. I¡¯m not paying you for this.¡± Janik¡¯s smile grew as he denied paying.


    ¡°Well, I can just not bring you in the future.¡± Sam smiled, abusing his position with a dramatic tone strongly suggesting this was a joke.


    Janik sighed, his smile still present. ¡°You might joke about it, but I will admit I have been somewhat... guilty for all of this. I could have paid you, given you items like letting you keep shit coming out of the Random boxes but... ¡°


    Sam broke in before Janik could. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, I know you got bills to pay. If you keep giving me access to shit you don¡¯t need and stuff, at cost price, I¡¯m kind of getting twice the odds for things.¡± His tone hinted more that he was persuading himself with this. He didn¡¯t know what was in the future, near or far, so he needed people he could trust.


    Though Elara didn¡¯t do much most of the time, she was still an ally of his, Dia was more than one and Janik was the only person he could trust as much as he was. He didn¡¯t want that to go and if nothing else, if absolutely nothing else; he is good company and smart when it comes to progression.


    ¡°Appreciated.¡± Janik smiled back, though his eyes weren¡¯t entirely in it.


    The feeling of the situation made Sam feel that Janik was still feeling guilty about it, but he also knew that his greed wasn¡¯t entirely unwarranted. Being honest with himself, he was uncertain what the smartest thing was at the moment. Going alone, or rather, without a second Player would double his progression speed due to the shared XP, but... This was more enjoyable and probably just made it safer all around.


    Perhaps they should agree on a deal, or perhaps Sam should just stop joking about it.


    ¡°With the dangers of this place,¡± Sam changed the subject instead, if felt more appropriate. ¡°Are you sure we can handle it?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, if we get something to ward off the cold, some ice-climbing gear and perhaps a few potions as things in there hit like a truck, I think we can be fine.¡± Janik smiled.


    ¡°... What are we meeting in there?¡± Sam asked hesitantly as he sat back down.


    Janik brought his phone back up and scrolled a bit before he answered. ¡°There are the Frost Wraiths who are stealthy and want to freeze you, the Shatterbacks throw exploding ice at you and break the ice you walk on, the Ice Drakes fly around trying to knock you off ledges or just freeze you, the Blizzard Wisps can freeze you and obscure vision, the Chillbound Sentinels can crush you or shoot you with a beam of frost... freezing you, and lastly the Glacial Leviathan which is a three-phase boss. All of this is without mentioning the snowstorms... which can freeze you.¡±


    Lifting his face with a smiling expression hinting that they might be screwed.


    ¡°Oh, so that¡¯s all, glad there¡¯s no cold there or anything,¡± Sam replied sarcastically.


    Janik chuckled, looked back at his phone and continued. ¡°Things in there have a Defence rating between 50 and 100, the boss has 150 and 3100 health per phase. So considering Defence, you might be surprisingly good at handling this alone. The problem is the damage they deal, the normal attacks average out around 100something, the larger things hit in the 300s, and things even have magic and breath attacks...¡±


    ¡°Soo... this isn¡¯t sounding good...¡± Sam commented, it was sounding more and more like they were screwed.


    ¡°Oh, it isn¡¯t, most of the fights have a chance to be knocked into or off something, like into a chasm or off ledges.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not sounding like your normal ¡®safety first¡¯ self today, you ok?¡± Sam joked in a response. However, it wasn¡¯t entirely a joke as Janik had been a grounding safety factor in their little group. Sam would probably survive on his own but Janik¡¯s insight and more active use of the Guide app had made things much easier than if he had been alone.


    Janik chuckled. ¡°I suppose I¡¯m getting affected by you,¡± he smiled solemnly like there was something else on his mind. ¡°I¡¯ve been stuck on the first Floor for so long, with my safety-first mentality. However, I won¡¯t let that go anytime soon but... Everything of proper value is happening on the Fourth Floor. If we could just rush there and then take our time, it¡¯d be great.¡±


    Sam could understand his thoughts. Even he knew that for the most part, 99% of all Players would rush to the latest available Floor. Due to this, almost all Players, crafters and stuff happening would be there, at the forefront of progress or something like that. Janik¡¯s safety mindset might have held him back a long time, and his need for money might have made progression harder. Sam had his reasons to progress, and with how his class and skills were progressing, they could perhaps get there in record time.


    One part of him was considering just throwing money on getting through things right away. As Janik mentioned, there were rushers or boosters or whatever you wanted to call them, give them money and they were high-level and geared enough to just crush through everything and they¡¯d suddenly be on the Fourth Floor. Parts of Sam wanted to look into this and just get there right away, but even he felt like this might be overdoing it.


    If they did this, the first dungeons on the Fourth Floor might suddenly be too much for them, and it didn¡¯t mean much to go there just to die. By doing the milestones for the next Floor themselves, at least they could get a taste for things, making sure they were ready without jumping too far. This didn¡¯t mean that they weren¡¯t going to rush things, but doing the start, a mid-range and the end Dungeon of each Floor at least gave them some taste of progression and expectations for the next one.


    ¡°Well, you¡¯ve been right so far, so if you think we can do that Dungeon, I don¡¯t see why we can¡¯t try, right? I assume the emergency exit still works there?¡± Sam wanted to confirm with Janik about this, as he knew that some Dungeons would disable that function.


    ¡°Yeah, most of the Exit Blocking Dungeons start on the Third Floor, so we won¡¯t meet many of them just yet. The few here on the Second Floor we¡¯ve also avoided, so we¡¯re going to be fine.¡± Janik¡¯s smile turned more honest before he continued. ¡°But, it¡¯s not going to be ¡®us¡¯ doing this-¡± emphasizing ¡®us¡¯ as he spoke he continued. ¡°It¡¯s going to be you.¡±


    Janik let that sink in for a second before he continued his explanation.


    ¡°On one hand I¡¯d like all of us to be a part of it, but the Final Dungeon on this floor is a bit... over the top compared to many others. It¡¯s harder than the first half of Dungeons on the Third Floor, not in pure combat power but in the bullshit surrounding it. And I think that you¡¯re uniquely specced to handle it on your own.¡±


    Sam pondered this for a moment, and he could be right. Though his invisibility wasn¡¯t perfect, the synergy between his skills was surprisingly perfect for stuff like that.


    ¡°I say we go back to TAC, gear up with some clothing and stuff, get ourselves some good range walkie-talkies and such, and we can camp at the entrance of the Dungeon like we did this one-¡± Janik vaguely pointed back at the entrance portal for the Mountain Fortress Dungeon Sam had used the last few hours farming.


    ¡°-And selling all of this stuff will let me set up some solid backups in case things go weird for me as well, with the kids I mean.¡±


    Janik had mentioned to Sam more than once that he needed money in case things went bad for him during his trips to the Tower. Setting up a backup for them in case he died was probably a good idea, not just for the logical side of things but for Janik¡¯s mind.


    They should get several million from today¡¯s grind, so unless he chooses to use that money on something it should set them up for a while.


    Nodding in agreement, Sam was fine going back, gearing up and perhaps getting something new from the Marketplace with his new pool of cash if there was something available.


    ¡°Ok, let¡¯s go back, we¡¯ll sell the shit and you can set up your backup as we gear up. Then we¡¯ll get ourselves to the final Dungeon of this Floor.¡±


    Dia had spent most of this time just relaxing against Sam, and Elara remained coiled around Janik as she had been doing during the grind as well. But for now, they needed gear to get to the Dungeon entrance, and even more so to complete the Dungeon itself.


    ¡°Sounds good,¡± Janik smiled as he started moving his body around, limbering up. ¡°Would be nice with something to eat as well, I¡¯m tired after all this relaxing.¡± His smile was properly wide and shit-eating, clearly at the expense of Sam who had been doing all the work today.


    Sam decided to not comment on it, even though he wanted to joke that he¡¯d leave him behind. Getting up from his stone had Dia almost fall over, they left the area heading back to Earth for some rest and gearing up before heading for the Frostspire Chasm.

 Ch.080 - "Wind-monster"

    ¡°That comes out to $2 115 000 split between you,¡± the young woman behind the counter confirmed. They had piled up their collection of cores and sold those in one batch to make the split easier, selling their individually obtained Aether Crystals, potions and whatnot afterwards to keep things separate.


    ¡°And for your crystals, and one mana potion,¡± having turned to Sam directly she was handling his side of the transaction afterwards. ¡°This comes to $95 500, so your total share comes up to $2 210 500. It¡¯ll be added to your account now.¡±


    Sam got a pling on his phone signalling this number having been added. He didn¡¯t pay much attention to Janik¡¯s talk with her as he checked the bank app. The 150 000 they agreed on had been taken out of his account and with the remaining money he had from the last round he now sported $2 935 500 in his account. This time the amount didn¡¯t even feel weird to him. But rather he felt the need to check the market if there was something good he wanted there.


    Though the market was still flooded with random weapons and gear, he was more interested in Skills. Sadly, it seemed that others had the same thoughts and the available Skill Crystals were not only seemingly random every day, but they disappeared almost as soon as they were available. He couldn¡¯t blame them, it made a lot of sense, people selling them as they came back and others buying them almost as fast. Since what you got was random, what was available also had to be random.


    Due to this, there weren¡¯t many interesting skills. Or rather, several of them were very interesting, but they were spells and needed mana. Unless they were altered or whatever his Invisibility skill had gone through, he couldn¡¯t use spells as his Energy didn¡¯t work. He required the Mana Conversion skill, allowing him to use an alternative energy source instead of mana. However, that skill wasn¡¯t on the Market and even in historical data, it had only been there a few times, went incredibly fast and at those times cost 10 million...


    Right now, Sam had only two choices, get a Spell he couldn¡¯t use, or get some weapons or gear instead. This made him a bit conflicted. On one hand, he could always use better weapons or Armour, as could Dia. On the other hand, he would be going to the next Floor in not long, which should give him passive, though random, access to better gear. He was going to solo the coming Dungeon, so perhaps another weapon wouldn¡¯t be a bad idea. He could afford a C-rank Armour barely better than the one he was wearing, but none weren¡¯t available on the Market.


    ¡°Well... There¡¯s not much good on here right now.¡± Sam commented to Janik, who was doing something on his phone after he was done with selling his stuff.


    ¡°We¡¯re not leaving tonight, so you can check again tomorrow,¡± Janik replied as he put his phone back in his pocket. ¡°TAC has winter clothing and the rest of the gear we need, so we can get that now so we don¡¯t have to consider that tomorrow, but for other stuff, you can stalk the Market from your room or tomorrow?¡±


    Janik didn¡¯t seem entirely certain about how Sam wanted to do that, but he had a good point.


    Sam knew that the market was random, due to logical reasons, and since they didn¡¯t have anything else planned for the evening, he could always just check things until they leave tomorrow. Something neat might come up. The basics weren¡¯t something that ran out of stock anyway, so getting the winter clothing, cold-weather camping gear, food, and drink wasn¡¯t an issue either.


    ¡°Her fur helps a lot, but isn¡¯t enough for the mountain,¡± Janik added, pointing at Dia. ¡°For short times she was fine when playing in the snow but she got cold afterwards.¡±


    Not having considered this before, Sam appreciated the info. It was winter outside on Earth but the weather within Aetheria didn¡¯t match, it was more static. The island that Dia came from might not have had any seasonal changes, matching the rest of Aetheria. Since she reacted like she did regarding the snow it was clear it was the first time she had seen it. If this was the norm where her people came from then they might never have developed the needed undercoat for cold weather. Or something... Sam hadn¡¯t studied how this worked.


    Dia nodded in agreement to Janik¡¯s comment. ¡°Dia not like cold...¡±


    Sam smiled, it was somewhat amusing that all that fur didn¡¯t work as much as it might seem.


    They spent the rest of the day getting the needed cold-weather gear. For Sam and Janik this was a simple thing that didn¡¯t take more than a few minutes, but for Dia, it was a bit worse. Due to her digitigrade leg shapes and pants, it took a while before they found something loose enough so she could move properly in it. This did mean that the pants were several sizes larger than she would ¡®normally¡¯ wear, making it look rather funny.


    Taking a mental note of this, Sam realised he might need to find a tailor or something that could make something custom for her, until this point she has been using a few dresses to at least keep her covered. During her time with Janik, or rather, the puberty-struggling boys in his group, she had gotten used to underwear as well. But that was about it.


    Another problem was shoes, Dia¡¯s feet were more like paws, making this somewhat problematic. Though her paws were much better than Sam¡¯s human feet, at handling cold, Janik still recommended something as it could get very cold up there. Asking Dia what was a good idea here was also a problem as she had never worn shoes. Just trying to tighten something around her ¡®feet¡¯ was uncomfortable and weird for her.


    In the end, they opted for something simpler, they found some shoes that fit well enough if they were needed. Another alternative was a leather bag with some padding to create some protection against direct contact with snow or ice. If it wasn¡¯t needed then they could just ignore it.


    After the gear was put in Sam¡¯s Item Box, Sam took a moment to get some more of Elara¡¯s venom on some toothpicks. He didn¡¯t know if they¡¯d be needed, and he had used a lot of them during his time in the last Solo Dungeon. Once she was out of daily charges, he ended up with a total of 37 venom toothpicks.


    Before saying their goodbyes for the night, they talked it over with Elara and decided that she, as a cold-blooded creature, was probably best left back on Earth, she would get her share of the XP when he returned anyway as proven earlier.


    The rest of the evening passed like most others. Sam used his collection of hands to try and find further ways to use them both in and out of combat, things not doable by normal hands. And though he had a few ideas and thoughts, none were practical at the moment. Ending up using his hand to play with Dia was amusing, even though they were invisible she was able to track them with a decently high success rate, explaining that she could through a mix of feeling and hearing, notice something being odd with the air where they were. But this was in a controlled scenario in a silent room, as soon as Sam started walking back and forth at the same time, her success rate plummeted.


    Spending the time together he checked in on the market a few times before they went to bed, not finding anything interesting at those times either.


    The next day, they woke up and went through their normal morning routine, meeting up with Janik for breakfast. Sam was a bit eager to get going. He was looking forward to the next Floor, but most of all, he was looking the most forward to finally getting to the Fourth Floor. That was where most of the Players were, and seeing a group of players outside of TAC was going to be neat.


    ¡°I have a question,¡± Sam asked as they ate. ¡°If all Players need to go through the Final Dungeons of the different Floors, how do Crafters get there if they can¡¯t fight properly?¡±


    ¡°Like me,¡± Janik smiled back at Sam, who looked at him with questioning eyes.


    Janik kept smiling and continued. ¡°They get carried.¡±


    Sam chuckled. ¡°That makes sense, so I suppose they also need to go through the same stuff.¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Janik confirmed between chews of his food. ¡°Since there isn¡¯t a group limit for most Dungeons, I have heard of a bunch of crafters hiring a boosting group and just challenging a dungeon with 40 people or something. The drawback of doing that is that you get basically zero XP and rewards.¡±


    Sam raised an eyebrow at the mention of zero rewards, though the XP would be split, there should still be the completion reward.


    Janik seemed to realize and continued. ¡°Remember I explained a while ago, how the System knows if you¡¯re abusing things or not? If you bring a level 1 Player with you through the Final Dungeon of a Floor, he won¡¯t get rewards?¡±


    Sam nodded to his explanation, he remembered now, but this didn¡¯t stop Janik from completing it.


    ¡°It seems they still get access to the next floor, but they¡¯ll struggle with XP and dungeons. Though that¡¯s a problem for combat Players like us, Crafters work a bit differently and won¡¯t be doing Dungeons anyway, they just want to be where everyone is.¡±


    This made a surprising amount of sense, Sam hadn¡¯t considered that before but if a Crafter don¡¯t need XP, or can get it in alternative ways, gaining normal access to a Dungeon doesn¡¯t matter to them. And if they aren¡¯t good in combat, it wouldn¡¯t always matter anyway. There were most likely exceptions to this but as a general concept, it felt logical.


    ¡°Well, that makes sense. And I suppose a good, high-level, group could bring you from the first floor to the fourth in a day if they are organized enough. Would most likely cost a lot but if you split it between 40 people it could become somewhat manageable.¡± Sam toned this like he wanted his understanding confirmed, more than it being a matter of fact.


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    ¡°Pretty much. So you¡¯ll probably find a bunch of Crafters on the Fourth Floor that are around level 20 or something, even though the Monsters there range between 60-80 or so.¡±


    The statement of levels had Sam react, he knew the basics of the various levels on the different floors, but it just properly dawned on him that they were going to jump quite a few levels in danger.


    ¡°I just... thought of something... The different level ranges of the Second Floor, you said it was between 20-40 or so. We¡¯re just level 24, is it smart to push on this much?¡±


    ¡°Ah, yeah, I thought the same thing at first,¡± Janik put down the glass he had just taken a sip from. ¡°But high combat-focused people like you, don¡¯t need to consider the levels as much as the raw stats. Like with us Players, the Levels are just a baseline for your available stats. If you think about it. Enough bonuses from items, skills or whatever, if you have enough money your level doesn¡¯t matter anymore.¡±


    Janik put pressure on the word ¡®bonuses¡¯ during his explanation, which Sam interpreted as the Ascendant hax he could do. And he had a good point. Sam started his level 1 with 4 Str, 4 Dex, 3 Vit and 11 Spt. The latter was boosted by his class and whatnot, but he started with 22 points. With 23 levels on top of that, he should have a total of 45, but in reality, his Spt alone was higher than that due to passive training, items and the shenanigans he could do.


    His total calculated stats, including items and everything was 61, considering his starting 22 points this put him comparatively to a level 39 Player. Then came all forms of skills, Synergies and utilities on top of that... Not counting his lack of resource consumption so... Janik had a very good point. Sam¡¯s class and build were also breaking the norm for his level, taking Janik as an example; since he was dual-wielding he could do 240 damage per hit for a total of 480, which was very good for level 24 according to the averages.


    Sam¡¯s total damage, with his collection of shit-tier weapons, would do about 900, not counting all the other shenanigans. And though his damage lowered dramatically if he used Invisibility, the fact that he was invisible...


    He understood what Janik meant.


    ¡°Well... when you put it that way,¡± Sam had to agree in the end. Comparatively, he was already about level 40, if one just went on pure stats. If things were to be judged by levels alone he was where he should be for the end Dungeon.


    Completing their meal, and with everything packed and good to go, they went for the Tower.


    ¡°I assume you have planned out our trek there?¡± Sam asked, not looking forward to a mountain trek before they even started on the Dungeon.


    ¡°Yes, we can do it in one of two ways. Either we can trek there, which is going to take us a few days depending on the weather, or we can pay someone $100 000 to fly us up there in a few hours.¡± Janik smiled, halfway hinting at his explanation.


    ¡°You¡¯re having me pay to buy weapons of you, in Dungeons I¡¯m grinding, and you want me to pay for the flight up there?¡± Sam had completed the statement before he realised how sour it sounded.


    But he couldn¡¯t properly hide it, he had commented on things through jokes before and... though he wanted to support his friend, buying weapons off him at cost was good but it was still a suppressed annoyance at times. It was true that Janik had it weirder when it came to money, and also true that Sam was somewhat cheating comparatively to other Players, but it was still dangerous work done.


    He was still fine helping out and whatnot but this half-lashing out through a joke felt more personal than Sam expected of himself.


    ¡°Well... if you put it that way...¡± Janik¡¯s smile faded. Not to the point of annoyance or anger, just to a more neutral expression. ¡°I suppose it¡¯s kind of hard to pretend that you¡¯re not the sole reason I earned about 4 million yesterday... If I set that money off it¡¯ll last until Noah¡¯s moved out so... I suppose I can foot this bill.¡± His smile came back afterwards.


    The return of Janik¡¯s smile relieved Sam a lot. He didn¡¯t want to become that guy in the group. He wanted to consider fairness as far as possible, he was also considering gearing up the group as a whole, which is why he simply gave away the gear Janik wanted when he came back. And though he wasn¡¯t against paying for the stuff Janik got in his boxes if he didn¡¯t need it... it still felt kind of weird.


    Deciding to ignore it for now, he could bring it up next time there was some loot to split, if Janik didn¡¯t bring it up on his own. Fairness should go both ways.


    Janik had been checking a few things on his phone, and by the time Sam was done pondering, Janik was already on a call.


    ¡°Oh, yes, yeah... As soon as possible... Three... No, we¡¯re fine... Yeah, that¡¯s fine... Ok, that works fine, thanks. Janik Znai... Yep, see you then.¡±


    Hanging up he turned to Sam. ¡°That was very streamlined, I¡¯ll pay when we get there and we just need to meet up and we have a booked flight. Regarding a return flight, we¡¯ll be informed how that works when we¡¯re there.¡± He smiled, looking happy about this.


    Sam would have been a bit surprised, but it made perfect sense. If someone has that kind of speciality, then everything was prepared. They just needed to confirm the basics and perhaps a little checklist and they were off.


    ¡°Well, let¡¯s go, then.¡± He smiled in return, he was both excited and wanted to get this over with.


    Heading within the Tower¡¯s influence they soon found themselves leaving the landing area on the Second Floor. According to Janik, all they needed to do was to go a bit further to the side than the village near them, and the transport would be waiting for them there.


    They had been here a few times before, so it wasn¡¯t that interesting anymore. Though Sam wondered how Dia would react to this. Sam hadn¡¯t been in a helicopter himself, but at least he knew what to expect and what was going on. Dia had probably never considered something like that.


    Janik led them there like it was routine, walking around the village and following a well-used road they found themselves at what looked like a little mini-village. It only had a few buildings but had several marked landing areas that had been flattened out properly, a large blue circle was painted on the stone ground with a white H in the middle.


    A man was sitting on a collapsable chair and scrolling on his phone, noticing the group as they came close. He didn''t look like he had shaved in years, his bald head covered with a dirty cap, he also wore a simple shirt and jeans held up by suspenders.


    ¡°Hey, you the guy on the phone 20 minutes ago?¡± He shouted as he lifted his head towards them.


    Confirming with a nod, Janik walked up to him with his hand and reached out for a handshake. The man didn¡¯t take it but instead started talking.


    ¡°We¡¯ll leave as soon as you¡¯re ready and payment goes through. I¡¯ll take you there and land you near the entrance. If you want to be picked up we have a long-range communication device you can borrow, but it comes with a deposit you¡¯ll get back after, just in case you don¡¯t return. When you¡¯re ready to be picked up you use it to get hold of us and hunker down for a few hours, it takes a while to get there, after all.¡±


    Sam was surprisingly fine with his straight-to-the-point nature. Almost oddly refreshing.


    Janik handled the finance side of this round, paying for the trip and going through the mini introduction for how to work the communication device, which was a fancy walkie-talkie with a super-long-range directional antenna.


    As Janik was doing that, Sam took the moment to explain and prepare Dia.


    ¡°The top thing there will spin around really fast and make a lot of noise, after that, it will start flying with us in it.¡±


    ¡°Thing... fly?¡± Dia asked with an almost suspicious look.


    ¡°Yes, we will be in it and it will fly, it¡¯s safe and will take us where we need to go.¡± Sam smiled. Naturally, he didn¡¯t know just how safe it was, but all things considered, it was best to explain it as safe. He did have a backup with his Boosted Telekinesis if it came to it, but he didn¡¯t want to even hint at it.


    Dia looked extremely uncertain, nodding hesitantly but with determination. ¡°Dia safe with Zar, Dia fine.¡±


    The tone of her voice didn¡¯t make it sound entirely believable, but she seemed determined to try.


    It didn¡¯t take long for the scruffy man to get into the chopper and start the process of getting the machine going. Dia¡¯s determination faded swiftly as the machine¡¯s chaotic noise increased, followed by the moving of air around them. Her expression was overtaken by confusion and uncertainty.


    Sam was a bit excited at this, he always wanted to fly in a helicopter. Janik looked somewhat unphased which might have helped Dia. As Sam grabbed her hand, placing a Psyhand on her head to calm her a little, he started walking towards the helicopter as the pilot waved them in.


    Dia¡¯s determination was all but gone, her trust in Sam was enough to let her take slow steps towards the loud wind-monster, but she didn¡¯t like it.

 Ch.081 - Ice!

    Sam had strapped Dia down, something she didn¡¯t like and needed some persuasion. Putting a helmet on her head did work, but it required some finagling due to her ears. The communication didn¡¯t work due to entirely wrong-placed speakers; he had to opt to shout at her instead.


    She was placed between Sam and Janik. Sam thought it was a better place than near the windows. She had probably never seen anything this high unless she climbed the mountain on her island as Sam did. He still didn¡¯t miss that place, although, with his current skills and experience, he could have handled it much easier.


    The helicopter took off and though Dia didn¡¯t panic, she didn¡¯t -not- panic either. Grabbing onto Sam she dug her whole face between his back and his seat, forcing him to sit in a weird position as she didn¡¯t want to see what was happening outside. It was clear as day that she didn¡¯t like this, and they had barely lifted.


    Deciding that it would just have to go as it did, he let her try to hide herself as they took off. It didn¡¯t take long for them to be entirely airborne at a much higher altitude as they flew over chasms and mountain ranges. Dia lifted her face and looked out the window, she simply put her face back in hiding.


    Though he felt somewhat sorry for her, he couldn¡¯t properly explain things to her either, she understood a surprising amount of English but explaining why the monster they were inside was flying them and making it seem normal... was a bit harder.


    He opted to pet her with a few Psyhands instead, trying to calm her down. It seemed to perhaps work after a short while but it wasn¡¯t enough to fix the issue.


    She seemed to calm down a little as they kept flying, but it didn¡¯t change her distaste for it, they were on the way and she would just have to handle it for now. The negative side of it was that the trip lasted a few hours. Helicopters are surprisingly fast, so it should have gone faster but there was a substantial amount of wind around the parts which slowed down their flight considerably. Hopefully, this meant that their trip back would be much faster.


    Finally getting there, Sam was happy to see that there was a landing platform for them to land on, he halfway expected to jump out in these winds. It was a large area without snow in what looked like a half-sheltered area. He expected this palace to be heated or somehow maintained.


    The helicopter had a slightly rough landing, but since the pilot didn¡¯t seem to mind that was probably normal.


    ¡°Dress up before leaving, it¡¯s cold out there,¡± he shouted over the headset.


    Sam took the hint and unfastened himself before doing the same with Dia. She immediately made for the door so he had to stop her for now. She wasn¡¯t desperate but didn¡¯t like it in here, but he felt it was a good idea to get her dressed before they left. The inside of the helicopter had heating, so it was a good place to get dressed since they could almost stand up inside. Or rather, Dia could, but the others couldn¡¯t.


    It took a short while before they were dressed and ready, but they got out after being dressed.


    The helicopter was left running the whole time. The group left the helicopter, closed the door behind them and left the landing pad for the mountainside. The pilot took off after waving to them through the window.


    The harsh winds were already biting cold, the helicopter didn¡¯t make this less unpleasant but the good clothing at least made it decent. Sam felt extra lucky that he could use his Psyhands for everything, so he didn¡¯t need to expose his hands to the wind or the snow.


    Dia was surprisingly fine, Sam expected her to be freezing for some reason but they had gotten good clothing for just this reason, so the only thing that remained was for them to brave the Dungeon.


    There was no reason to wait, and Janik had the same idea, having already started walking. Sam followed him with Dia in tow and they found themselves within the entrance area almost right away. The half-bowl of sorts, giving a slight shelter from the wind, housed the landing platform and entry portal. Just looking down what seemed like the path to get here on foot was... He was glad they paid blood price for the helicopter.


    The familiar popup came into view and disappeared shortly after, having the group stand in a surprisingly mild area, mimicking the half-bowl outside it had some cover from the wind and snow. Ahead of them was a ceiling-less hallway leading around a turn, which seemed to be very common in Dungeons. Though this place was slightly sheltered from the weather, it was still biting cold. Had they just teleported here without proper winter clothing, they¡¯d not last long.


    Dia followed confused, but seemed to enjoy the snow ever so slightly, Janik and Sam pushed on until the window popped up.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Glacial Leviathan: 0/1


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters: 0/50


    Rewards:


    10 000 000 xp


    1x Random mid-level crafting material


    Chance (2%): Low C-tier weapon or armour -or- other item.


    Bonus rewards for optional step:


    10 000 000 xp


    Random Box - X. ]


    Sam had a double take, ten million XP to complete the dungeon, and another ten for taking out the 50 monsters. Either that was very generous or the System expected this to be deadly enough to make it worth it... In the other Dungeons, if one assumed that you could just teleport to the end or skip everything, then the completion XP was generous compared to the Boss XP, but this was quite large. There was also a chance for a C-tier item, which could be interesting, though 2% was not exactly good odds.


    ¡°Well, I suppose we¡¯ll set up camp here, and stay in the starting zone, it¡¯ll keep us relatively safe as we won¡¯t be moving much,¡± Janik explained as he took his backpack off his shoulders.


    Sam nodded, the original plan was for him to do this, after all. Starting up their walkie-talkies, plugging in the earplugs and doing some final tests, Sam was getting ready.


    ¡°Yeah, I can hear you fine,¡± Janik confirmed. ¡°If you can¡¯t respond for whatever reason, just click the talk button two times, it¡¯ll make the clicking sound,¡± Janik did this as he explained, letting Sam hear two clicks in his ear. ¡°At least I¡¯ll know you heard it and get that you can¡¯t respond.¡±


    Sam nodded, this was a simple way of doing things. He didn¡¯t exactly have much experience with them besides the toy variants when he was younger, so any info was good info.


    ¡°I guess I¡¯ll be off,¡± Sam smiled, realizing he must have looked a bit unsure as Dia didn¡¯t seem entirely comfortable instead, stepping over to him and giving him a very clothing-padded hug.


    She looked up at him with a smile, ¡°Sora griv.¡±


    Sam had learned a lot of her words, but these weren¡¯t ones he was familiar with, and his confused expression might have told her that on its own.


    Dia looked upwards in a thinking expression for a few seconds. ¡°Win hunt... Something like... Good hunting.¡± Her smile grew slightly as she translated it.


    The good wishes weren¡¯t lost on him, given what he knew about her people this felt like an appropriate happy hunting-like sentence.


    Sam smiled back as he gave her a head pat, she lowered her ears and smiled wide as the hand connected, even with the thick gloves in between.


    ¡°Hopefully you¡¯ll see the completion message soon,¡± Sam stated to Janik as he turned to leave through the hallway.


    ¡°Take your time, don¡¯t rush it, be careful,¡± Janik commented back as he was working on shovelling some snow away for their tent.


    Allocating 10 Energy for his Invisibility ability, he became completely invisible as he continued. Though his footsteps still made marks in the snow and he made plenty of noise like the crunching of the same snow, or just rustling of clothing, at least he couldn¡¯t be seen from afar. The seemingly constant wind would also help cover the noise he made, so now he just needed to get through all this.


    Having had plenty of time on the helicopter, he looked through the guide material and detailed maps of the Dungeon. Though it wasn¡¯t just a corridor from start to end, the first place was a large glacier, for example, the path you had to take was mostly ¡®that way¡¯ to get to the end. There weren¡¯t any shortcuts or ways around things, not that this was a problem, he wanted to get the whole dungeon done this once so he didn¡¯t have to return, he was fine with cold but this was quite uncomfortable.


    Walking forward into the glacier, he saw the first major problem. It wasn¡¯t a monster or trap, but rather it was indeed a glacier, it was huge, spreading left, right and ahead. The maps were sketchily drawn and had notes, though the area was mapped it wasn¡¯t exact, the area was indeed large and if he was to find everything living here it could take... a while... He contemplated if he should care about completing the place as a whole or not... But he¡¯d have to take it as it came.


    Walking forward the winds picked up as he left the mountain chasm he came in from and came into the open area properly. The wind was more biting than before and the sub-zero temperatures mixed with the sharp winds had dug down into the glacier so oddly enough, there was a surprising lack of snow on the ¡®ground¡¯ itself. It was all blown away.


    This let him see the first hurdle easily enough, what looked like a natural ice bridge, no more than a slab of ice stretching across a rift in the ice a bit too wide to go around without wasting time. He also saw the first monster, it looked like a stocky wolf-like creature, having jagged, icy spines running from head to tail, even in the wind there seemed to be some frost vapour coming from its body.


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    As it walked around, the clawed feet dug more into the ice than he expected, cracking it up ever so slightly, they also looked heavy so meeting one of these on the ¡®bridges¡¯ could mean death...


    [ Shatterback


    Level: 35


    STR: 20


    DEX: 13


    VIT: 14


    SPT: 0


    HP: 400 / 400


    Damage: Bite 100, Shard 150, Charge 50


    Defence: 50


    Abilities: HP boon, STR damage boon, Icy Spines, Shatter Charge, Shard. ]


    [ Shatter Charge: Stepping hard with claws and talons during a charge, doing increased damage to icy or fragile ground. ]


    [ Shard: Launched an ice shard at a target. ]


    [ Icy Spines: Shards explode out on death, damaging everything in a local area. ]


    Sam considered this for a brief moment, this wasn¡¯t an issue for him.


    Though 10 energy was dedicated to his Invisibility, he still had 26 left. Using his named weapons and filling out with 20-damage daggers, he still had a damage potential of over 600, that was before the rest like his elemental damage, Void Fang bonus damage and other things like Silent Killer were counted. So he felt confident, at least in one-on-one fights.


    Trying to walk at least somewhat silently, if only to trigger his stealth bonus items, he walked onto the ice bridge, his weight having it sink ever so slightly, cracking some of the ice. The Shatterback noticed something was happening but it wasn¡¯t able to find out where Sam was exactly. Sam stopped in his tracks as the monster came a few steps closer, seeming interested in investigating the cracking ice, this had the bonus of bringing it within his Area of Influence.


    Convenient.


    As it came into range, Sam used all his remaining energy to manifest his Psyhands, in which he called out his weapons and sent the swarm towards the unsuspecting creature.


    Two critical hits, activation of the Emberslash Blade which resulted in a puff of fire, the passive Electric damage and triggering Static Charge, on top of this Silent Killer increased the whole thing by 50%. The total wave calculated up to 1 278 damage, after the Shatterback¡¯s 50 Defence... Sam felt decent about his damage output even with a third of his Psyhands not used.


    The monster fell instantly, and a split second after life left its eyes the ice on its back shattered and exploded out like a fragmentation grenade. It didn¡¯t properly reach Sam, but it at least showed him the destructive damage to Melee combatants with them...


    As soon as the damage was dealt he triggered to put the weapons back in his Item Box.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Glacial Leviathan: 0/1


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters: 1/50 ]


    He chose to not pay attention to the XP, it¡¯d happen when it happened and it wasn¡¯t like he expected to get enough to level up before the boss anyway.


    As the ice on its back shattered and exploded, it made enough sound that something else came in to investigate. Two... creatures came floating in. Looking like semi-translucent shapes, vaguely humanoid in form covered in icy mist with glowing blue eyes. Their clawed fingers looked like small icicles as they hovered around the corpse of the Shatterback.


    [ Frost Wraith


    Level: 35


    STR: 8


    DEX: 5


    VIT: 15


    SPT: 19


    HP: 142 / 142


    Damage: Chill Touch 145


    Defence: 0


    Abilities: Chill Touch, Frost Veil. ]


    [ Chill Touch: A touch attack that deals frost damage and slows the movement of the target. ]


    [ Frost Veil: Cloaks user in a frosty mist, dramatically increasing stealth in icy and snowy areas. ]


    Checking their stats it was clear they were going to be a problem, even now that he could see them, due to the snow in the air and without activating Frost Veil, they were blending in well. The good thing is that they seemed to need to touch you to do damage, and besides stealth, they had nothing else going on.


    Still a problematic enemy, but their low health made it very easy for Sam.


    Remanifesting his Psyhands in the area, he split up the weapons between them, between the Void Edge¡¯s cone, the one critical hit, the overlapping Static charges, triggering of Silent Killer and all other stuff, none of them had a chance and both died instantly. As they fell to the ground, Sam waited patiently to see if more arrived or not.


    Deciding not to wait too long, as the ice bridge he was on didn¡¯t feel entirely safe, he got over to the other side and felt better on more solid ground. Or at least as solid as being on a Glacier could feel.


    Taking some time, he dug around and found the Cores of the three targets. Interestingly enough, since he had to use his hands for this as his Psyhands didn¡¯t have the physical strength to pull and push, it seemed to count as enough activity to break his Invisibility. According to the current market they were valued at around $7 000 each, so he was going to get as many as he could.


    Reactivating his Invisibility, he continued onwards, using the only landmark he had in a visible radius; the bridge and chasm. He went in the direction he thought was the other side.


    The guide explained that if you got lost, you could just follow the edge of the Glacier and you¡¯d get there eventually anyway. But it would mean more time in the icy weather and a higher chance of meeting something, so the straight way was the best.


    As he continued onwards, the scenery repeated itself. It was just more of the icy ground, chasms here and there, sideways snowy wind. He used his Psyhands to scrape along the ground ahead of him and randomly touch around to make sure he didn¡¯t step into something open without seeing it. If nothing else it felt safer.


    More Shatterbacks and Frost Wraiths were along the trek, but they weren¡¯t a problem. In the wind they weren¡¯t able to hear him, and even though the snow landed on him and made a rough and simple outline of him, a little shake got that loose and due to the amount of other snow it didn¡¯t seem like they noticed. All of this meant that he wasn¡¯t discovered once and it was just an extermination on the walk through this horrid weather.


    Five more Shatterbacks and eight more Frost Wraiths came into his path on the way to the end. Sam found it amusing to use the Shatterbacks as local grenades for the nearby Frost Wraiths, but they were rarely in range. However, that only postponed the end of the fight by a few seconds, and all combat in the glacier area followed the same pattern. Had it not been for the weather it could have been somewhat amusing.


    Sam found himself meeting a frozen mountain, there was no cave entrance, opening or anything in sight, just sheer cliffs upwards. According to the guide, there should be a cave to enter that would take him to the next area. But there weren¡¯t any landmarks or anything of the sort so he¡¯d just have to pick left or right...


    Picking to go the left path, he walked for quite some time, finding a roaming Frost Wraith on the way which was easily handled, until he came to a gigantic chasm that looked like the end of the path, from what the guide had explained he took the wrong way...


    Turning around he doubled back, his footsteps having disappeared long ago, though the mountain didn¡¯t just disappear, so he had no problems following it until he eventually found a cave entrance.


    Going in he muttered some curses to himself, he hoped the wind would die down but instead of managed to hit the opening just right to make a bottleneck of air which just made it worse.


    Continuing through the cave hallway, he came out on a ledge that ended abruptly. The guide had explained this place as well and there was a chasm in front of him filled with sharp ice spikes at the bottom. Falling into it was nothing short of death unless you were extremely lucky.


    He now had to climb along walls and find ledges for rest, or just use pitons or whatever those things were called, he hadn¡¯t climbed much. He had ice picks and everything in his Item Box but... any of this would bring him attention. In the area, there should be a mix of Ice Drakes and Blizard Wisps, both going for him directly but also just knocking him down and having him fall...


    The area was a rough oval going straight ahead, it was roughly 200m across, they tested it with some wire or rope according to the guide. And considering the distance, he could see why this was such a dangerous area, you¡¯re somewhat exposed on the wall when climbing, after all.


    Normally, the recommendation is that you do it one by one. One person climbs to the next shelf while the other protects him. Then another goes to the same shelf, and so on. After everyone is there the process is repeated. It takes a while but it works.


    Sam had another idea!

 Ch.082 - Snowy chasm

    Sam was not super keen on climbing, though he could still use his Psyhands to protect himself, he couldn¡¯t exactly see through his back so he was quite exposed regardless. But he did have a surprisingly simple backup solution for this place.


    The guide stated that the exit cave ledge and the entry cave ledge he was currently on, were at the same height. That made this much easier.


    [ Telekinetic Boost active; 46 / 46 seconds remaining. ]


    Now that this was active, time was of the essence, he couldn¡¯t wait a single second. Grabbing himself with all his Psyhands, deactivating his Invisibility for all his hands to be manifestable, he lifted himself forward. It felt almost like troll logic that he could, using ¡®his own hands¡¯, move himself forward in space like this but he had tested it before and for some reason, it worked. Just hinting that the Psyhands weren¡¯t attached to him in any way.


    Not knowing how long it would take to cross the distance, he moved himself as fast as he could. The only reason he could even barely see anything was the ski goggles as part of the cold-weather attire.


    Suddenly jerking himself a little to the side, he managed to avoid slamming into a lithe, pale blue drake-looking creature. He didn¡¯t get, nor take the time, to appraise it. Just moved enough to not crash into it and moved himself forward at surprisingly great speed!


    His flying hadn¡¯t gone unnoticed, the drake he barely missed let out an angry roar and started flying after him, this attention spread across to others in the area, others that Sam hadn¡¯t even seen yet. Parts of him wished that he had yelled for them when he was on solid ground as he didn¡¯t have the time for this now.


    [ Telekinetic Boost active; 36 / 46 seconds remaining. ]


    Ten seconds had already passed. Due to the blizzard, he couldn¡¯t see any walls, ceiling or floor, he was just speed-floating in ¡®that¡¯ direction as fast as he could. He was glad that he was lifting himself faster than he could sprint. Though he was outpacing the drakes, there was a second creature in this chasm.


    On the way to his, hopefully soon reached, goal, he saw something else. A series of small floating orbs of blue and white energy, surrounded by swirling snow, came into view. They weren¡¯t easy to see in the already existing blizzard but he could barely make them out.


    One of them, one he again barely managed to avoid crashing into, pulsed with pale white energy which in turn had the same energy pulse around Sam. There was no message of any Defence rating doing anything, he just got hit with whatever this was.


    [ HP: 200 / 250 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€? ]


    50 damage disappeared in a blink without any warning or chance to defend. Sam knew he had the Psyhands to retaliate, but he didn¡¯t want to risk it at the moment, he was on a timer, after all.


    Zooming ahead he did his best to avoid getting hit, and in a stroke of genius, or delayed idiocy, he realised that... With the expanded weight limit of his Psyhands during the Boost, he didn¡¯t need to use all of them to lift him... His fully boosted capacity allowed him to lift himself six times over.


    Dismissing 20 of his hands, returning 10 energy he activated his Invisibility again. This still let him lift himself about five times over, so he was more than fine. The sudden Invisibility helped a lot, it seemed that the floating orb lost track of him as he disappeared into the blizzard towards his goal.


    He felt kind of dumb that he thought that he needed all his hands for this, but that¡¯s what lack of experience gets you.


    [ Telekinetic Boost active; 26 / 46 seconds remaining. ]


    As the remaining time was getting shorter and shorter, his heart rate only rose. He should make it in good time but he didn¡¯t know for a fact. Was this a dumb idea? Should he turn around and hope to land somewhere? Perhaps he should go to the sides and use his ice picks or something to at least give him a... wall... To land on?


    The range of uncertainty rushed through his mind, this was a dumb idea without further testing, it felt so smart at first but now it was feeling dumber by the second. Heading seemingly straight was a good idea but with the turns to avoid enemies he wasn¡¯t sure anymore. Had he gotten turned around?


    Just as his panic was reaching its peak, he saw what looked like a proper ledge through the snow. Aiming towards it he managed to land and stop himself from sliding too much with 12 seconds remaining on his timer.


    Once he was properly standing and the Boost was deactivated, he felt an immense weight lifting off his shoulders. It was a good idea, but perhaps he should have planned it better next time, this was pretty dumb as far as survival went.


    Perhaps he shouldn¡¯t mention that to Janik, or perhaps it would make a fun story to trigger his safety thoughts.


    The chasm was brimming with activity, the two creatures that saw him were trying to find him again. He also wanted to get the secondary completion of the Clear objective, so he should get the enemies in range.


    ¡°HELLO!¡± He shouted out into the chasm. ¡°I¡¯m over here!¡± He added afterwards, making sure to move some distance to the side, into the cave behind him to be safer. As he waited for something to arrive.


    He didn¡¯t need to wait long, a drake came in and landed on the ledge, starting to sniff around for him. Now that he got a better, less stressed-for-time, look, he got the details of it better. It was small and lithe, still large enough to probably take Sam as a rider, it had pale blue scales and icicles hanging from its wings, and its eyes were glowing a cold steely blue. It looked like a tiny dragon but since its front arms were its wings, that made it a drake... right? Sam didn¡¯t have that insight but the Appraisal listed it as a Drake at least.


    [ Ice Drake


    Level: 35


    STR: 13


    DEX: 26


    VIT: 20


    SPT: 0


    HP: 550/550


    Damage: Claw 124, Bite 186, Wing Buffet 100, Ice Breath 50.


    Defence: 50


    Abilities: HP Boon, Dex dmg boon, Ice Breath, Wing Buffet. ]


    [ Ice Breath: Breathes out a conical area of ice and cold damage. ]


    [ Wing Buffet: A powerful flap of the wings creates a strong pulse of wind that can knock a target back or down. ]


    Sam winced at the thought of fighting these while climbing. The damage was pretty bad considering that you would be somewhat helpless on the wall. It didn¡¯t have any elemental resistance, few things besides bosses did, so Sam was seeing the extreme value that mage classes and elemental damage could have.


    In the current case, the Drake wasn¡¯t in a good position. It didn¡¯t know where Sam was and it didn¡¯t have any Elemental Resistance going on. Sam had dedicated 10 Energy to his Invisibility, but he still had enough Energy for his 13 best weapons to be used.


    He manifested the hands, called out the weapons and swung at the helpless creature. Even after calculating its Defence rating, the total damage was in the low 900s, it didn¡¯t have a chance at all and died instantly.


    The sudden metaphorical explosion of blood and gore from this creature brought interest and uncertainty to the others. On one hand, they seemed cannibalistic as two more landed and just dug in. A few of the flying orbs also came over to investigate. But on the other hand, others seemed to realize there was something afoot and kept their distance.


    [ Blizzard Wisp


    Level:  30


    STR: 3


    DEX: 5


    VIT: 16


    SPT: 19


    HP: 255 / 255


    Damage: Blizzard Surge 50, Mana Drain 0


    Defence: 0


    Abilities: HP Boon, Blizzard Surge, Mana Drain. ]


    [ Blizzard Surge: A burst of freezing winds damages and disorients targets. ]


    [ Mana Drain: Absorb mana from nearby magic users. ]


    Blizzard surge was bad, but Mana Drain was useless against Sam, he didn¡¯t have any mana by class design so he was good. They also didn¡¯t have any defences, physical or elemental.


    Targeting the ones further away, though they were in the air over the chasm, meaning getting their cores wouldn¡¯t be possible, Sam was more interested in getting them ticked off the Completion List.


    Splitting up his weapons into two groups was more than enough to take care of the Wisps, and the overlapping damage from the Static Charge handled the remaining damage for the Drakes.


    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    As the flying targets fell one after another, trying to leave before they became the new targets Sam¡¯s weapons were faster than them and all targets within range were handled soon enough. The ones on the ledge started flying off as electrical pulses spread across the nearby area, but they became the next targets instead.


    Also being close enough for overlapping of Static Charge the entire group fell fast enough, a few volleys spread out across the lot handled everything in only a few seconds. He felt almost sympathetic for the total one-sidedness of it all, but they were just Dungeon monsters, and they¡¯d do the same to him.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Glacial Leviathan: 0/1


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters: 26/50 ]


    He didn¡¯t get all the cores, as several of them went into the chasm, but he got a total of five cores between the 9 Drakes and Wisps. The Wisps were almost all core after their energies faded when they died.


    Feeling surprisingly good about this, though he used two-thirds of his Boost, he couldn¡¯t say that he would have done so well if he had climbed normally, so it was worth it.


    Before leaving, he wanted to get his health back up. Standing still with his legs shoulder-length apart, he focused on his breathing and relaxed.


    [ Vital Recovery activated, regenerating health. ]


    A skill he got in the red-dotted room he spent so much time in. It had a very low use chance in combat as it needed him to be relaxed and focus on his breathing, it trickled slowly as well so it wasn¡¯t as good as a potion. Even though it was a B-rank skill, it only healed a health a second when he hit the breathing properly, if he lost focus it was slower. Though taking a few minutes let him fill that pool back up, lifting his HP back to full.


    Once that was done, he stopped focusing on his breathing and relaxed, deactivating the skill, before turning around and leaving into the cave opening properly, following its hallway he headed into the next zone.


    Having already read through the guide for this Dungeon on the helicopter, he knew what lay in store for him. Having well-written and tested guides made things like these surprisingly trivial. The coming area was defined as The Ascent. He was to go up a spiralling path with a few rooms on the way. Within the rooms he had to move some mirrors to bend the light the correct way, bringing a light source from below to the top.


    Angling these correctly could become a problem, especially when attacked, but the guide material explained where to aim the beam of light for it to work out in the end even if it looked weird at first, removing the need to backtrack. The main issue in aiming these is that the ice is surprisingly clear and mirrored at the same time, making it somewhat disorienting when aiming. But like any gamer who has farmed a dungeon to death, they had perfect descriptions with pictures and everything... It almost took the fun out of it.


    The only main issue was the guardians, the Chillbound Sentinels, animated constructs of ice and stone which would get in the way. But, he would have to handle that when he got in there, all in all, it shouldn¡¯t be a massive problem as his invisible tactic was still working fine.


    Coming into a massive circular hall, he was at the bottom of what looked like a tower. Looking up he could see the height disappear in the mist within the room. The blizzard wasn¡¯t as present in here but it wasn¡¯t entirely free from it either. A path along the walls corkscrewed upwards leaving the massive opening within. The whole thing was easily a football field in diameter, making the path up there quite... problematic.


    This was also the final area before the boss, and the boss was a solo monster without any extras, this meant that the spiralling path upwards would have up to 24 Golems. Not counting any possible missed targets on the way here.


    Sam sighed, he had gotten here in record time, he had the Guide and some cheating to thank for that. According to the time on his phone, he had still been at this for two hours, and going up this without stopping would take... a bit...


    Walking towards the start of the winding path he saw a few Golems on the way, they were almost part of the walls, but they were spaced far between so hopefully would only be one at a time. And as expected, once he got close enough the Golem pulled itself out of the wall in a dramatic scene with ice shattering and snow falling off. It was towering in height, easily three times Sam¡¯s height. They were wide and roughly humanoid in make, constructed out of ice and stone. Glowing sigils or runes were carved across the surface of their bodies.


    [ Chillbound Sentinel


    Level: 40


    STR: 30


    DEX: 4


    VIT: 30


    SPT: 0


    HP: 1600 / 1600


    Damage: Frozen Slam 350, Sentinel¡¯s Gaze 54


    Defence: 100


    Abilities: HP Boon, STR boon, Frozen Slam, Sentinel¡¯s Gaze. ]


    [ Frozen Slam: Slam the ground with frost shockwaves. ]


    [ Sentinel¡¯s Gaze: Fire a concentrated frost-beam at range. ]


    Sam was the most uncertain about the beam. It didn¡¯t do that much damage but if it was an elemental thing he didn¡¯t have a defence against it either. But, he was invisible so he should be fine.


    Just as he thought this, considering his Invisibility a haven, the Golem¡¯s face snapped towards him and a bright white beam shot out from his eyes, gathering into a single beam a step or so away from its face. The beam hit Sam before he could react.


    The ice chill crept through his body like someone poured ice water across it in mid-winter.


    [ HP: 196 / 250 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€? ]


    Sam did his best to avoid getting hit again, deactivating Invisibility he called on all his Psyhands and weapons. His 33 weapons were sent forward and all landed true, Static Charge pulsed, and though no weapon triggers were activated everything else did its thing. A total of 1192 damage was dealt, but 100 was Defended against.


    It was still standing.


    Sam pulled his weapons around for another volley as the Golem slammed into the ground. There was considerable distance between them, so the slam didn¡¯t hit... Something Sam was very glad for, as even with his Defence he would have had no chance against this. However, it did lift enough ice and debris to pepper him with chunks of ice. Luckily heer as well his Defence could handle that.


    The second volley handled the rest of the Golem¡¯s health, having it stop moving and just fall over like an articulated statue. A heavy thud sent an echo through the whole place for several seconds before it died down. Considering the snow which normally pad echoes surprisingly well, there was plenty of ice and bare stone walls to carry it.


    This seemed to wake up other golems further up the path, having Sam curse internally. Taking a moment to focus on his breathing he got his health back up to full again before he took a moment to analyse the situation as he dug into the golem¡¯s body for its core.


    The golem saw him, it aimed straight at him even when Invisible. But there was no such skill on its list, did it just have a massively good perception? Did it smell or sense it through something like a natural skill? Dia¡¯s sense of hearing and smell was listed as improved perception so... shouldn¡¯t that be the case here as well?


    Deciding to do some tests for the next Golem, he needed to find out how this worked. Like with the others, he could confuse it with fake steps, using some of his hands to simulate walking around. He could already see another golem in front of the first side room, so he might as well use that as a test.


    Reactivating Invisibility, he stored his weapons and continued onwards. He used several hand pairs to simulate steps in the snow, making sure they were far ahead of where he was going so the ¡®fake people¡¯ would arrive before him. The Golem, like the one before, suddenly snapped to the side and looked at the incoming invisible people, picked one of them and attacked his hands with the ice beam.


    Sam had to hold in his little triumphant noise, it seemed that he realised the trick... Footsteps in the snow, it was that simple. And it felt almost moronic that he didn¡¯t consider it properly before. The only reason this worked fine outside was that he kept a longer distance to the targets, and the targets were somewhat the same in height, as far as perception went. They didn¡¯t get the massive top-down look as the Golems, so they couldn¡¯t see footsteps as easily.


    On the Glacier, there was so much wind that there wasn¡¯t that much snow to even have footsteps in, and in the chasm, he was floating, once he landed it was the same thing with winds, snow storms and chaos to hide his footsteps.


    In here, though snow and moving air, it¡¯s much calmer comparably. So the snow had settled, letting the Golem spot where the footsteps were and guestimate a target. It was almost too simple...


    Stepping closer the Golem delivered a massive slam, hitting all the fake people at the same time. It was a good tactic and would have murdered Sam entirely. Even with his armour, he¡¯d take around 300 damage, more than he had to go on... So this was a horrifying enemy in that way.


    However, the Golem didn¡¯t know where Sam was, but Sam knew where it was. This was going to be an easier fight.

 Ch.083 - Tower!

    The golem was an easy target, being within range but not sure where Sam was as there were now several paths of steps, Sam got in the needed attacks before it managed to find out where to hit, although it did try to beam some seemingly random locations. Sam took a note of this for the others to have a hand or two make fake steps to the sides so he wouldn¡¯t randomly get hit.


    Getting the core before moving on, he got to the first little side room. It was more like a nook into the wall of the ¡®tower¡¯, almost like the side bulge in a tunnel where you can stop. There was a bronze mirror-like contraption which was entirely frozen over. The guide explained that he should thaw it and not hammer at it as the latter might break the mirror surface. Luckily enough he had a fiery axe he could just hold against it, and though it took a while it was safe and non-damaging, freeping up the contraption the mirror was standing on.


    Now that it was free and reflective, he was able to bounce some light coming from seemingly nowhere to go up towards the next one, though due to the nook¡¯s material construction, it was strangely hard to aim, as the bleed light from it would bounce off the irregular ice-like walls and make it hard to see. The guides accounted for this as well but suggested someone standing outside of the room to explain where to aim.


    Sam worked around this by having his Psyhands move the mirror, it had some cranks to move it back and forth and now that everything was thawed, there weren¡¯t any problems with moving them. He got it aimed where he needed to easily enough now that the problems were gone.


    Once that was done, he moved on, he had 9 more mirrors to move and a lot of height to cover. But instead, he opted to take a break, he had been moving and working on this for hours and needed some energy before the climb.


    He considered doing it easy and heating some food on the axe, as it was fire and all that, he had also used it as a weapon for a while without cleaning it so... That was ignored in favour of the camp stove. He cooked up a little meal with something warm to drink, taking a small stool out of his Item Box to sit on while he worked on things. All in all, it was surprisingly calm and nice.


    ¡°Hey, Janik, can you hear me?¡± Sam tried the walkie-talkie as he sat there, cooking.


    There was no reply besides some heavily staticky garbled noise, it sounded like there was talking in there but it was impossible to hear a single word.


    ¡°Well, if you can hear me, I can¡¯t hear you but, I¡¯m safe and good and going up the tower now should reach the boss in a few hours or so.¡±


    He didn¡¯t know if that would go through but he hoped that Janik could hear him at least. However, if this came through as garbled on his side as well... Then he might have the wrong ideas and think something horrible was going on.


    They were too far away to see each other live-stats in the System, he didn¡¯t know what the range or conditions for that was, but if he had died the System wouldn¡¯t display it as it was.


    Hoping that things were positive he continued with his break before packing down and continuing.


    Having figured out the trick with the Golems, the rest of the path up was surprisingly uneventful. He dedicated a few pairs of hands to ¡®walk¡¯ before him, faking out some attacks, he then had them move to the sides so the Golem started using its ground slam or beamed to those sides as Sam stood as far away as he could and swung at the Golem until it died. A few managed to find out something was going on but besides on rogue beam, none of the following 15 Golems landed a single hit on him.


    Thawing and moving the mirrors was also not a problem as he made sure to kill the Golems so they didn¡¯t get to do anything once he left a room.


    The damage was easily healed after the fight and he found himself at the top. There were only 17 Golems in total, which means that there were 7 unaccounted-for monsters. This annoyed him more than he expected it to. They were most likely in the Glacier or Chasm zones, it was very easy to hide there after all. Having used about two hours and many small breaks to get up here, he had no interest in going back to find them.


    Taking a final break, he made something warm to drink again as he read through the guide material for the boss again, just to be sure.


    There were three phases. The first phase had it turn around and thrash a lot, freezing the area it was in and using its tail a lot. The second phase was worse, it dived into the ice and reappeared from under the ice like a shark breaking the water after prey, you only get a few seconds to react as the icy ground is reacting to the movement of the water underneath. Then the last phase where it coils around the arena and slowly makes it smaller as it breathes frost on the Players within, crushing them in the end even if they can survive the frost.


    There were some tips for the Phases. Tips for the first one is to have someone with enough elemental defence to take the focus and handle the Breath. The others in the party should just attack it as much as possible. It¡¯s kind of dumb so that¡¯s the most common strategy unless you had something that could block the breath entirely. The tail can be jumped or dodged, but it¡¯s quite tall and thick so flight might be needed for that.


    In the second phase, it doesn¡¯t see too well through the ice, so if you could throw around something heavy or somehow ¡®stomp on the ice elsewhere¡¯, it would draw aggro and have it come up over there.


    In the third it becomes a similar race as the first, just that it¡¯s harder to dodge, you have a limited timer on you before it crushes you. So focusing on defence was important here.


    The guide states that the Leviathan has 3100 health and 150 Defence. It has this health per phase, bringing it to zero resets it back to 3100 and starts the next phase. This part Sam didn¡¯t see before, he skimmed through it and somewhat got that it had -only- 3100 health in total.


    Well, either it couldn¡¯t see him, giving him a good attempt at staying hidden, or it could detect him and he¡¯d just use all his hands for combat. He had gone too far to turn back now, he also had 11 D-rank potions, so hopefully he had needed backup...


    Having packed up the mini camp he set up and double-checked everything, he opened the ice door which triggered the transport into the boss arena.


    The white light faded and Sam found himself in a gigantic arena, it was somewhat round with mountains all around, much like standing in a frozen-over volcano caldera. There was some wind and snow but it wasn¡¯t enough to limit visibility to the other side.


    In the middle sat a titanic serpent-like creature. It had crystalline scales and jagged icy fins and was lightly glowing with frost emanating from its mouth. Though the caldera they both found themselves in was twice the size of two football fields put together, it looked long enough to reach around the outer perimeter of it.


    [ Glacial Leviathan


    Level:  45


    STR: 48


    DEX: 5


    VIT: 40


    SPT: 0


    HP: 3100 / 3100


    Damage: Claw 159, Tail 212, Bite 318, Cryo Breath 100.


    Defence: 150


    Abilities: HP boon, STR dmg boon, Cryo Breath attack, Frostquake, Elemental Resistance. ]


    [ Cryo Breath: Exhale a conical freezing attack. ]


    [ Frostquake: Shake the ground creating icy fissures. ]


    [ Elemental Resistance: 50% Elemental Resistance. ]


    Sam didn¡¯t wait, he needed to get closer. His unaugmented range was much shorter than the football field they had between them.


    Running to the left he activated Invisibility, whereafter he turned to the right while dedicating to Psyhands to fake-running in the same direction he originally ran.


    This seemed to work as the first breath attack came towards the fake runner, hitting nothing of importance. Sam had to despawn and re-manifest the two hands as, though undamaged, they were caught in the icy prison of its breath. Continuing the fake running worked for now as a tail came down in a vertical slap towards them. Sam could feel the immense pressure hit them like someone sitting on his hands. But since they couldn¡¯t take any damage he was luckily fine.


    The creature had noticed the second runner, Sam, coming towards it, turning its gaze towards him it inhaled and exhaled a blizzard at him. Throwing himself to the side, the vigorous movement broke Invisibility, this just had the leviathan fling its tail after him.


    Struggling to get up, he didn¡¯t have much chance to dodge the tail, it crushed him against the ice beneath him.


    [ Armour, Defence 55 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 98 / 250 ¨€¨€¨€¨€?????? ]


    Taking out a potion he chugged that as he got back on his feet and ran with all his might.


    [ HP: 223 / 250 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€?? ]


    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    The tail was lifted up but not before he got a full volley into it. Several crits, the Void Fang, Emberslash Blade and Vampiric Blade triggered their bonuses. Penetrating a little more damage, setting the target on fire as well as absorbing one health from it, Void Fang always triggered its 5-health drain, giving him 6hp recharge this round. And Static Charge did its pulse. The Leviathan being on fire didn¡¯t last long, it was covered in ice, and snow and was generally extremely cold so that didn¡¯t do anything.


    [ Leviathan HP: 1842 / 3100 ]


    [ Void Rot has triggered on target: 5 damage.]


    As the tail recoiled from the damage, Sam stored his weapons and activated Invisibility, he fake-ran ahead with two Psyhands as he changed direction, not as dramatic this time but he needed to get closer. But he also needed to stay hidden, so he did his best to move around fast but silently, a paradoxical concept to someone as lacking in skill as him.


    However, it worked like last time. A breath attack came first, followed by a powerful tail slap. Sam, keeping his Invisibility, attacked with the rest of his hands as the tail came into range.


    [ Leviathan HP: 1316 / 3100 ]


    [ Void Rot has triggered on target: 10 damage.]


    Void Rot was stacking, no other abilities triggered and there were no critical hits. However, as he put the weapons back in the box and fake ran away, opting to stand still with his actual body, his fakeout seemed to work.


    The Leviathan let out a roar as it slapped down its tail a bit of distance away and started swiping it along the ground towards Sam. There was no chance to avoid this other than up.


    [ Telekinetic Boost active, 13 seconds remaining. ]


    [ Void Rot has triggered on target: 10 damage.]


    He lifted himself straight up, deactivating the skill as he reached the needed height but after the tail had swept under him. This ordeal used three seconds but as the tail swept past he got a chance to send another limited volley towards the tail.


    A few weapons were missed due to the suddenness of the attack, as well as the tail already moving away from him, but the Bleeding Edge triggered its bleeding attack!


    [ Void Rot has triggered on target: 15 damage.]


    [ Target has taken bleed damage: 5 damage.]


    [ Leviathan HP: 855 / 3100 ]


    Sam¡¯s landing was less than stellar, he felt fine but realised he had to fake-land several other places as well. Storing his weapons he Force Pulsed a few places on the ice to simulate a hard landing, which didn¡¯t seem to be enough. He was also slightly annoyed to realize that Silent Hunter didn¡¯t trigger.


    The tail came back down vertically, Sam had just landed, hard, so dodging didn¡¯t do much on the slippery ice.


    [ Armour, Defence 55 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 77 / 250 ¨€¨€¨€??????? ]


    Realizing that this was, sadly, a very good opportunity, Sam dismissed Invisibility and manifested his full arsenal as he used his normal hands to drink a potion.


    The potion did its job instantly as the swarm aimed for the tail.


    The volley was devastating. Several critical hits, the Void Fang being one of them. Many activated abilities increased damage and made the situation worse, all in all, this ended up doing just above a thousand damage after all resistances were calculated.


    Sam got the time to fill his health by chugging another potion as he got to his feet while the Leviathan screamed out in pain, thrashing around like it was being electrocuted. This made large cracks in the ice and forced Sam to widen his stance so he wouldn¡¯t fall.


    The thrashing ended up with the Leviathan diving through the ice with its head, pulling the long tail after it into the water below through a surprisingly long-winded movement, it was quite long after all.


    Sam reactivated his Invisibility right away, remembering the tactics suggested by the Guide. This was going to be surprisingly easy. He manifested two sets of hands, using only two Energy. Using the rest to extend the range of his Area to its max he used those hands to fake-step in the distance as he stood still.


    He could see a massive, terrifying shadow under the water. It was deep, very deep. And due to its length down there, it was hard to see what the head, tail or just a part in between as it moved back and forth.


    Suddenly there was a weak push of the ice on top of the water near one of his hand pairs. It didn''t take long before the ice exploded upwards as his hands were attacked and eaten. Luckily he could just despawn them and respawn them alongside his weapons. He had to deactivate invisibility to get the entire wave out, sending them at the exposed head.


    A few crits, but many misses. Sam didn¡¯t fully expect the creature to stop with only its head sticking out before pulling back. Giving him exactly one attack all of a sudden. It was again set on fire but it just came out of the water so that stopped before it started.


    [ Void Rot has triggered on target: 5 damage.]


    [ Leviathan HP: 2388 / 3100 ]


    He was not happy seeing that the Void Rot and Bleed was reset, but how the Static Charge cooldown had not... At least he got another Rot one going. The bleed was trigger chance but the Void Rot always happened. He could feel the weird energies of the Void Fang trying to attack his hand but it didn¡¯t matter, putting his weapons back in the Item Box, the Leviathan pulled his head down as Sam activated Invisibility, moving his location.


    Sam left a pair of hands in the area the Leviathan saw him stand in just now and did his best to avoid being tracked to his new location by walking. The Leviathan kept circling underwater for a while.


    [ Void Rot has triggered on target: 5 damage.]


    [ Void Rot has triggered on target: 5 damage.]


    [ Void Rot has triggered on target: 5 damage.]


    Sam was fine with this, if it just kept circling down there it¡¯d eventually die.


    Like before, the ice suddenly bulged, and to Sam¡¯s glee, it was still around one of his fake locations. This time he was more prepared and as soon as it broke the ice he dismissed his Invisibility and delivered a new volley!


    [ Void Rot has triggered on target: 10 damage.]


    [ Leviathan HP: 2363 / 3100 ]


    Not many things triggered this time, which was a shame. However, since he was prepared this time he had a chance to strike the head as it was pulling it back down. Since this was done hastily and during a weird movement a considerable amount of weapons missed their target.


    [ Void Rot has triggered on target: 15 damage.]


    [ Leviathan HP: 1815 / 3100 ]


    Void Rot was slowly ticking away and stacking as it should, the power of S-rank weapons was becoming very clear.


    As it disappeared down yet again, Sam repeated his process. Invisibility, running, walking carefully and faking several stepping areas.


    [ Void Rot has triggered on target: 15 damage.]


    [ Void Rot has triggered on target: 15 damage.]


    Yet again, he was ecstatic that it worked as planned. The ice again bulged out and the Leviathan came out, letting him get a proper attack at it. Again most of his attacks landed properly, Void Rot got another stack going and Sam was feeling good.


    [ Void Rot has triggered on target: 20 damage.]


    [ Leviathan HP: 885  / 3100 ]


    As Sam was preparing for the next attempt at a lucky shot, the Leviathan didn¡¯t pull its head down but had already aimed at him and inhaled. The only thing Sam saw was a blizzard of breath enveloping him as it almost solidified. He tried to dodge to the side but it was too late.


    [ HP: 150 / 250 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€???? ]


    Thinking that this was manageable, he just needed one more attack, he noticed one major problem. Though he was still alive, his leg was frozen to the icy ground.


    As the mist around him faded, letting him see the Leviathan properly again it opened its mouth and came at him for a bite. A bite that was expected to do 318 damage before defence.


    In his panic, Sam chugged a potion as he sent his swarm of weapons towards the creature hoping to do enough damage.

 Ch.084 - Area Loot

    The incoming attack landed properly and true, it was so focused on Sam that he got a lot of hits in its head and around its eye, doing a lot of critical hits. This changed the trajectory of the attack, making the Leviathan hit the ice next to Sam instead. The panic drinking of potions had filled his health but a 300+ damage bite would have killed him regardless.


    Lifting its head, the Leviathan moved almost impossibly fast as it coiled around the area, blocking off most movement within its little bowl of death as it inhaled deeply, looking at Sam.


    Sam had little he could do, given the size of the bowl, it had coiled around Sam specifically, not the whole arena as he expected, and then breathed out a bone-chilling mist.


    [ HP: 150 / 250 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€???? ]


    He had nothing to block this with, and the leviathan¡¯s powerful body was coiling closer. The guide listed this as a DPS race and he intended to win. He had a weird trick up his sleeve, and that was that he could drink potions and attack at the same time.


    He didn¡¯t have to move far to get in range of its body to attack, taking out one of his remaining seven potions he chugged it, filling his health again, as he sent out his full volley, there was no need to hide any more as he couldn¡¯t avoid the breadth regardless.


    Not many crits or activations, but the first damage was done.


    [ Void Rot has triggered on target: 5 damage.]


    [ Leviathan HP: 2170 / 3100 ]


    Another breath from the Leviathan lowered his health by 100, but another potion equalled that out again: 5 potions remaining, and the coiling was getting much closer.


    [ Void Rot has triggered on target: 10 damage.]


    [ Leviathan HP: 1295 / 3100 ]


    He got a volley out properly before the coiling of the Leviathan¡¯s body made contact, he felt the strong, hard scales grab around him. He tried to climb out but he had no chance, he was grabbed and properly squashed, and at the same time the Leviathan didn¡¯t stop using its freezing breath.


    [ Armour, Defence 55 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 105 / 250 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€??? ]


    Sam had to store two of his cheaper daggers and use those hands to feed himself potions, it was the only way he could survive this. Using one hand to get a potion, and the other to uncork it he fed himself the potion.


    [ HP: 225 / 250 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€? ]


    The rest of his hands were used to attack the Leviathan, even though he could attack just anywhere, being coiled up in it, he opted for going against its face, it felt more appropriate.


    [ Void Rot has triggered on target: 15 damage.]


    [ Leviathan HP: 245 / 3100 ]


    He was close, it was oh so close, but the Leviathan continued its assault, squeezing harder than before as it kept breathing the icy mist.


    [ Armour, Defence 55 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ HP: 80 / 250 ¨€¨€¨€??????? ]


    Sam wanted to heal up, but one potion would not save him from the next attack regardless. However, he felt confident in his damage output compared to the remaining health of the Leviathan.


    The following attack, aimed at it¡¯s eyes, face and mouth, cut deep and did considerable damage. The Void Fang gritted, as did the Obsidian Warblade and several unnamed blades. The delivered damage took out over thrice the remaining health.


    Sam was dropped on the icy floor as the titanic creature spasmed, hissed and screamed out before its head fell, slamming into the hard ice and remaining still.


    Falling to his ass, Sam felt a humungous amount of relief. That was close, much closer than he had hoped.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Glacial Leviathan: 1/1 (Complete)


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters: 43/50 (Failed)


    Rewards:


    10 000 000 xp


    1x Aether Crystal


    Skill Crystal. ]


    [ Area Loot:


    - Leviathan¡¯s tooth.


    - Leviathan¡¯s eye. ]


    [ Levelup +1! ]


    [ XP to lv.25: 14 449 905 / 83 886 080 ¨€¨€???????? ]


    [ Companion Dia, level up +1! ]


    [ Dia XP to lv.20: 14 779 / 14 779 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€ ]


    He immediately triggered the level-up, putting the point in Spirit as normal. But as he did that he noticed something. He had triggered a few rewards he wasn¡¯t used to.


    From the reward itself he got a Skill Crystal, but also some area loot, that¡¯s not something he had seen before. He put everything in the Item Box for now, and... started the daunting task of finding the core of the several hundred-meter-long snake... Though initially daunting he was happy to realize that it was very close to the head, he decided to start there and luckily enough it was in the throat. A silent mental prayer to the creators of that detail later he turned for the exit in the centre of the area, that¡¯s where he saw the barely existing shimmer of the exit portal. Though he knew he could use the emergency exit, it felt more appropriate to do it this way.


    As he got within range, he accepted the exit, finding himself outside with a confused Dia, who upon seeing him immediately pounced on him and rode him to the ground where she remained attached.


    Janik appeared shortly after and could only smile as he looked at the two in the snow. ¡°I assume it went well? She was asking about you quite a lot.¡±


    ¡°Yeah... I almost died a few times but it¡¯s all good,¡± Sam commented back as he somehow managed to force himself to at least somewhat sit.


    Dia stopped what she was doing and snapped to look at him with aggressively worried eyes. ¡°Almost died?!¡±


    ¡°Eh... well... Don¡¯t worry about it, it¡¯s fine. I¡¯m here, right?¡± Sam didn¡¯t realize what he had done before he saw her reaction, trying to metaphorically push it to the side didn¡¯t seem to work either.


    She started a string of angry words he hadn¡¯t heard, he knew a decent amount of her language so he got a few words in there but, there were many new ones.


    Janik chuckled and left them to their own, taking communication equipment out of his backpack.


    Sam had to somewhat wait for her to speak in words he understood but tried to change the subject instead.


    ¡°But, you levelled up, where should we put your point?¡±


    Dia didn¡¯t fall for it and continued her rant about him needing to be careful, he can¡¯t die, that¡¯s bad.


    ¡°Well-¡± Janik came back a while later. Dia had calmed down and they had decided to put her point into Vitality. ¡°-I spoke with the helicopter people, they¡¯re going to be here in a few hours, so I suppose this is a good time to set up a camp and get something warm in us?¡±


    Though he toned it as a question, as he had already started unpacking the things to make a small camp it didn¡¯t seem like he was asking.


    Sam agreed and they proceeded to set up camp, in record time when Sam used his Psyhands to help, they focused more on weather coverage than somewhere to sleep, using the mountain wall and some tarps to get a wind shelter going. Inside there they set up the little camp stove and cooked some simple food.


    ¡°So, I noticed you didn¡¯t manage to take out all the monsters?¡± Janik asked playfully with a wide grin.


    ¡°Nope, and if you¡¯re going to complain, you can do the next one,¡± Sam replied bluntly but jokingly.


    ¡°Yeah... no. I think I¡¯ll pass,¡± Janik chuckled. ¡°But that means no rewards besides XP from this one. Or rather, not for me, I think you should keep any cores you have. It¡¯s only fair.¡± Janik kept his smile which looked honest this time.


    Sam was glad to hear it, realistically it was the least he could do, but this also brought his mind back to what he got.


    ¡°Speaking of, I got a Skill Crystal as the base reward and some other things. I haven¡¯t heard of Area Loot before.¡±


    ¡°Area loot?¡± Janik replied in a tone suggesting more that he wanted to confirm what he heard more than uncertainty of what it was. ¡°That¡¯s pretty rare. Some dungeons have a chance to get some local stuff, unique to that dungeon. But it doesn¡¯t happen often.¡±


    ¡°Ah, that¡¯s neat,¡± Sam smiled as he took the items out of storage. ¡°I got the Leviathan¡¯s Tooth and an Eye.¡±


    Appraising them didn¡¯t give much info.


    [ Leviathan¡¯s Eye: Extremely rare and high-quality crafting item. ]


    [ Leviathan¡¯s Tooth: Extremely rare and high-quality crafting item. ]


    ¡°Rare and high-quality crafting items,¡± Sam paraphrased with an almost bored expression.


    ¡°Huh,¡± Janik didn¡¯t seem to know much about it either. ¡°I suppose you can ask some crafters when we get to the Fourth Floor, the good crafters stay on the highest available floor most of the time.¡±


    Sam nodded to his statement, putting them back in storage, and taking out the Skill Crystal instead, quickly looking at the name. ¡°Have you heard of the skill... Aura?¡±


    ¡°Oh, yeah, Aura is a pretty good skill but requires a harsh stat investment to get the max of, but it¡¯s pretty powerful if used right. You got an Aura skill?¡± Janik¡¯s expression went into explaining mode as he gave the short explanation but changed to surprise and excitement at the ending question.


    ¡°Yeah, is it that good?¡± Sam looked down at the Skill Crystal and read the info after Janik¡¯s excitement.


    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    [ Aura: The user can channel internal energy to enhance physical and defensive capabilities.


    -Energy converts to Aura Points (AP) based on ¡Ì(Vitality * Spirit) ¡Á 1.5.


    -AP can be allocated to


    |-Defensive Aura: +1 Defense per AP.


    |-Barrier Aura: +5 HP barrier per AP. (Recharges 5% per 5 seconds, after 10 seconds of not taking damage)


    |-Aura Blade: Create a melee weapon; +5 base weapon damage per AP.


    |-Empowered Strikes: Increase weapon damage, +3% total weapon damage per AP.


    -AP allocation is permanent until reallocated.


    -Aura is entirely self-focused and does not affect other players or entities directly. ]


    Sam used a moment to consider this. It was a bit strange that the calculation was the square root of two multiplied stats, but taking out his phone and doing some test calculations it seemed that this meant you¡¯d get more out of it if you had the two stats equally levelled. Square root numbers were strange and he didn''t understand them completely.


    Math aside, the things it could be used to was rather neat. Defence rating was always a boon, an HP shield was good for elemental effects or things that Defence didn¡¯t affect, creating melee weapons was always nice when needed, and increasing damage of existing weapons was also very interesting.


    ¡°It¡¯s surprisingly versatile, but I see what you mean about the stat investment,¡± Sam added to his question.


    ¡°If you don¡¯t want it... for some reason,¡± Janik smiled at Sam with a wide grin. ¡°I can take it off your hands.¡±


    ¡°Yeah... no...¡± Sam smiled back, he knew this was a wishful joke and that Janik would probably take it if he gave it to him, but at the same time, it wasn¡¯t something he expected to go through.


    Though Aura wouldn¡¯t scale the best with how Sam was using his points, it didn¡¯t mean that it wouldn¡¯t do anything. Any boost was a good boost, and it even came with a point scaling of its own, so it didn¡¯t use his Energy or need Mana.


    Without considering it more, ignoring what this could earn him on the Market, he activated the Skill Crystal.


    [ Aura skill obtained. ]


    [ Aura points: 24. ]


    The scaling would be much better if his stats were spread between Spt and Vit, but as a freebie, it seemed worth it. There also seemed to be a rounding part of the math as the exact number would be 23.95.


    With 24 points he could get a 24 bonus Defence rating, if he manifested a single weapon it would have a base damage of 120, he could boost the damage of an existing weapon by 72% or give himself a shield up to 120 HP. It could also be split how he wanted, Def and HP, several weapons or something like that.


    Though he would have put it all in Defence for now, having just almost died from ice breaths in the Dungeon it felt better to put that in a Shield. Mentally allocating the 24 points into the barrier pulsed out a thin, barely visible red field around him. It used a brief moment to stabilize before its colour faded and it seemingly disappeared.


    [ Barrier: 120 / 120 ]


    A little window popped up and displayed his shield HP before it moved and attached itself to the little widget that showed his HP. He felt good about this.


    Dia looked between Sam and Janik with curious eyes, landing on trying to smell whatever the field around Sam was, trying to touch it. She didn¡¯t seem to find anything and she seemed almost disappointed when she couldn¡¯t smell anything.


    Janik let out a fake sigh. ¡°And here I thought you¡¯d gift it to me because you didn¡¯t need it.¡± Shrugging dramatically with his shoulders as he held his hands out to emphasise it.


    ¡°And here I thought you were smarter than that,¡± Sam retorted with a smile of his own.


    They looked at each other for a few seconds before sharing a laugh.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m glad it¡¯s going well for you... I just can¡¯t help but be envious, you know?¡± Janik honestly commented after their laugh.


    Sam couldn¡¯t fault him, over the last... he lost track of time, but since they joined up, Janik hadn¡¯t gotten more skills than he had before, not counting his Class skill. Ignoring class skills, Sam had now obtained 9 outside-of-class skills. Some he had paid for but most were rewards in different forms. Though he was out of the Solo Dungeons at this exact moment he could say that he was... ok... with the rewards he had gotten from them, but at the same time, he felt he would be fine even if he didn¡¯t go through that.


    He felt lucky to be able to say that he didn¡¯t feel completely mentally ruined by them, he could feel it in his heart that they had changed him. The Island and the last gauntlet more than the other.


    ¡°A random thought,¡± Sam considered something, changing the subject. ¡°When you appraise me now, what you do see?¡± Sam knew that Janik had a lower-powered Appraisal, it could only see the health of targets up to a few levels higher than him, but with the Barrier, he wondered what it would register as.


    ¡°I see that your health is 275 and that you have a shield of 120.¡±


    ¡°Ah, so the barrier is displayed, that¡¯s a shame,¡± Sam replied. He had somewhat hoped that the cheaper appraisals couldn¡¯t see it, but it made sense as it was linked to his health, after all.


    As they waited for the helicopter, they kept talking about random stuff. Suddenly Dia¡¯s ears lowered and pressed against her head, she became almost defensive as she pressed against Sam. It didn¡¯t take long before they realised that the helicopter was getting close, and given how much she liked it last time, her reactions made sense.


    However, there was no proper way around it, the alternative was to walk and fight the snow for days, not something Sam was interested in. She would just have to accept it.


    To Dia¡¯s pleasant surprise, the way back from the mountain was much faster, the winds that fought them there now helped them back. Shortening down the trip significantly. Though she was still pressed in a corner between the seats and Sam, it was at least faster.


    During the trip, Sam had some more time to look around and noticed something new. The Ascendant thing had activated again, perhaps due to completing the End Dungeon on the Second Floor?


    In any case, he saw that he could affect numbers like before, but this time he could add +4. Was that relevant to levelling up stacked on top of the Dungeon completion? He also didn¡¯t see any increasing possibilities on Dia or Janik, which deepened the mystery.


    There were too many uncertainties, but for now, he quietly put the four points in Spirit, raising it to 51 with the boost from the ring. This increased his HP and Telekinetic abilities as normal and had a huge chance of bumping his weight limit up a bit. The change let him use fewer hands on the multi-hand weapons, but the increased Energy also let him manifest more hands. This combination ended up with a total of seven ¡®free hands¡¯ that he could use for more weapons, giving him yet another exponential increase in power.


    Getting off the Helicopter was almost the best part in Dia¡¯s eyes, Sam and Janik didn¡¯t have the same distaste for it, which could be due to understanding or just not having as sensitive senses, in either case, it was over. Janik returned the communications equipment and got his deposit back, and they headed back to Earth. All in all, it was pretty straightforward now that the Dungeon itself was beaten.


    ¡°So, the bonus thing kicked in again,¡± Sam broke the silence as they walked back from the transport people¡¯s location to the Floor entry location.


    ¡°Oh?¡± Janik raised an eyebrow. ¡°Can you do it on me as well?¡±


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t seem like it, I still don¡¯t know what triggers it, but the change was 4 this time,¡± Sam honestly answered and added some info at the end. He didn¡¯t intend to talk too much about it but he felt like he should mention it to Janik, even though he didn¡¯t explain how much this changed things for him.


    ¡°Well... that¡¯s a shame. Good for you, but a shame.¡± Like normal, he seemed happy on Sam¡¯s behalf but a bit saddened that it couldn¡¯t affect him.


    ¡°I have also been thinking about something,¡± changing the subject, Sam continued. ¡°If the System stops people from just getting rushed through... How can the booster people just rush a Dungeon, or like you where I did all the work?¡±


    ¡°To be honest, I have no idea how this works. The only thing I know is that if you skip the steps and get yourself to a higher Floor, you don¡¯t get to reap the benefits there. Like, if we had just gotten someone on the Fourth Floor to bring us up there right away, we could skip all this but... We wouldn¡¯t get proper XP or loot from that floor before we ¡®earned it¡¯... or something.¡± Janik made air quotes around ¡®earned it¡¯ as he said that part. ¡°Crafters do this at times because they don¡¯t intend to go through the dungeons, but for us... I don¡¯t think that¡¯s a good idea, which is why I didn¡¯t properly suggest it.¡±


    Sam had some ideas, Janik did explain this a while ago but a mix of forgetting details and not having it explained as well meant that he didn¡¯t properly get it. But, like the games he played when young, skipping certain markers of progression would block you from entering or getting what you should. Much like how you might get less XP if you, as a low level, go into a Dungeon for your power but with a max-level player in the group. It followed a similar logic.


    ¡°Yeah... now that you mention it, you did explain something like that before. I suppose being part of completing a Dungeon at least triggers the completion part. But going to the End dungeon with a higher level Player would probably mess up rewards or XP, but at least you get it completed.¡±


    Janik pointed like Sam had a point, even though he somewhat just rehashed what Janik said. ¡°Yes, pretty much. You just need to complete them and if you don¡¯t care about the rewards, you can rush it that way.¡±


    Sam pondered this for a moment and... it kind of made sense. Given how the System was structured and why the System exists at all, it would make sense that there were ways to bypass certain things if you just abuse it. Abusing the system was surprisingly easy and hard at the same time, after all.


    Dia didn¡¯t add to the conversation, Sam knew she understood the words but at the same time she might not understand the context, he didn¡¯t know how she saw the System, after all. He would have to ask her about that later.


    However, she did trot after them with a surprisingly content expression.


    Continuing to the entrance zone they got the familiar popup once they got in range, now with an option to go to the Third Floor as well as the others.


    ¡°So, should we check it out before heading back?¡± Sam eagerly smiled.


    ¡°I don¡¯t see why not,¡± Janik smiled back, looking just about as eager as Sam was.

 Ch.085 - Mask

    Selecting the Third Floor from the options as they stood in the entrance area of the Second Floor, the familiar white light washed over them before depositing them. The air shifted dramatically.


    The clear and clean, almost crisp mountain air changed to a heavier and saltier taste. The added heat of the air was immediate as they were still wearing their heavy winter clothing. The clothes were fine for walking back on the Second Floor, but here it was too much.


    As they could properly see again they got to take in the view. The Landing area was on an elevated location, like a central grass and plant-covered mountain, they were high enough to get a proper look around.


    They were on a large island, larger than the PvP island. Surrounding the whole thing was a large archipelago, a collection of many, many smaller islands. The landmass itself had many smaller mountains, hills, rivers and bays. The trees were mainly palms or large-leaf jungle-based, and the temperature was pretty comfortable with normal clothing. Looking closer across the landscape, there was quite the deforestation done here and there to make roads for transport to make its way through, the coast was dotted with docs and boats. A small village was on the same plateau they were on, made almost entirely out of wooden structures, it had some people walking about doing things.


    Dia¡¯s eyes lit up with a sense of familiarity. Sam understood it as it was pretty similar to the Island they met on. So it might feel somewhat like home to her.


    The first thing that happened was that they all got their winter clothing off, they would be cooked in not long if they kept weaning them.


    ¡°No, Dia no want,¡± Dia shook her head and tried to refuse as Sam had taken her dress out of storage.


    She didn¡¯t have her dress on under her winter clothing, a dress under her pants was a strange and impractical thing when it didn¡¯t give enough warmth to matter at the time.


    However, they were going to be amongst people... perhaps, and there were other reasons for it as well.


    Sam thought he understood, this was her kind of environment, perhaps the closest she¡¯d be to spending time in her home as she¡¯d ever get, and she had explained her distaste for clothing more than once.


    ¡°You kind of have to,¡± Sam commented. Though nothing forced her to, it was still a civil thing, not to mention that it was easier to consider her not ¡®just some random beastfolk¡¯ if she wore clothing. Sam had a fear of that as well. ¡°We need to make sure that people see you as something else than a random monster.¡±


    Dia muttered something in her language, Sam didn¡¯t get all the words but got enough through context that she wasn¡¯t happy and wanted to burn the clothing.


    Her naturalism was odd in Sam¡¯s eyes, he understood it slightly, but he clearly didn¡¯t get it.


    He just had to add that to the list of things to ask her about later.


    Reluctantly she put on the dress, to Janik¡¯s failure to keep his laughter in. Sam couldn¡¯t blame him, it was kind of amusing in one aspect, and in another, it was a perhaps dumb attempt at safety. He knew that she had a readable title that Players could see, but if you round a corner seeing a Beastfolk you might act before you think.


    Janik seemed to be the least impressed at the view than the two others, though he might have been spoiled by reading up on things more than Sam did, and Dia was somewhat biased.


    ¡°Now, I don¡¯t expect that you have read up on this place,¡± Janik started as he nodded towards the village in a motion for them to follow. ¡°But a lot of dungeons happen underwater, and the ones that don¡¯t, still often have things going on underwater and... I don¡¯t know about you but my ability to breathe underwater is... limited.¡± Smiling at his joke he continued. ¡°There are a few ways to work around that. One is to have, or get, a skill that lets you breathe underwater. Another is to get a water-breathing item from crafters here on the island.¡±


    ¡°Oh, they have that?¡± Sam asked curiously. But as soon as he asked he realised that, of course, they do. The things that Player Crafters could make were well beyond magical at times. ¡°But... I assume that since it¡¯s that important it¡¯s...¡±


    ¡°Expensive? Oh, stupidly so, but you can¡¯t get around it if you want to complete this place.¡± Janik put his phone in his pocket as he continued towards the village. ¡°I have no idea just how expensive it is, there weren¡¯t any numbers in the Guide, but I don¡¯t imagine we have a choice. We could have gotten around it if we only got one for you if all the Dungeons had entrances over water but...¡°


    ¡°Of course, it¡¯s not that easy,¡± Sam added. If they could just hang around in the opening of the Dungeon, like they did in the End of the Second Floor, it could have been easy enough but, for everyone who came along they needed one of their own.


    ¡°To make it better, though there are masks on Earth, the market and other creators, they aren¡¯t good enough for proper underwater use, so... a kind of monopoly or supply and demand thing has lifted the prices to the same levels everywhere...¡± Janik added to make the situation worse.


    As they talked they had already entered the village, Janik was looking for something and pointed out a sign on a cottage-like building reading Water Breathing. ¡°There we go.¡±


    It looked like a tiny storefront, it wasn¡¯t larger than a one-car garage. Janik walked up the three-step stairs and entered the door which rang a little bell.


    Sam followed with Dia in tow, entering the little wooden hut they found the place to be super simple, it didn¡¯t even have insulation or a thick wall, just a simple cottage with a desk and chair inside. There were several shelves with locked glass doors on them, the shelves had a bunch of what looked like gasmasks covering the whole face, but rather than a filter or two they had small roughly square-shaped compartments.


    ¡°Welcome.¡± A young man behind the counter stated as he paused something on a laptop on his desk. ¡°You need a water-breathing device?¡±


    Janik nodded.


    ¡°That¡¯s great. It¡¯s $100 000 for a simple one-time-use mask. $300 000 for a rechargeable one, and $350 000 for the young lady there.¡± The man pointed at Dia when referencing the lady.


    Sam had conflicted feelings. On one hand, he somewhat expected this. On the other, these were insanely steep prices.


    ¡°And there¡¯s no haggling,¡± the man added afterwards with a smile hinting that he didn¡¯t care if they got something or not.


    ¡°Excuse me?¡± Janik let out in surprise, causing the young man to smile.


    ¡°Yep, supply and demand, not gonna sugarcoat it. The reason the one for her is more expensive is because of the fur and mouth:¡±


    Again, this made sense as a basic concept. One-use one was the cheaper, the rechargeable mechanic added up-front cost but that could be made back easily enough if it¡¯s used for a while. And Dia¡¯s face was different than a human, her muzzle and fur would require some specialist stuff.


    ¡°Can we pay with Monster Cores?¡± Sam asked, having decided that since they were probably going to spend some time grinding here like the other places, they might as well get a good set.


    ¡°Yep, not a problem. But we will take a 5% fee for that, as we¡¯ll need to get those transported and sold to TAC later,¡± the man smiled.


    ¡°Can we talk with them on?¡± Sam asked focusing on the functionality instead.


    ¡°Yep, no problem. All of them will let you know when they are nearing empty, the rechargeable ones can be recharged by putting an Aether gem against the charging point, much like phones and other stuff today. This works underwater as well.¡± He smiled as he explained, pointing at the specific location on a mask he took out from underneath the desk.


    ¡°Since they are airtight, they also work as gasmasks, and since they produce their air, I have heard of people using them in super cold environments for more comfort as well.¡±


    Though this was expensive, at least the man knew how to market his stuff.


    ¡°Fine, we¡¯ll take three, then. Rechargeable ones, of course,¡± Sam explained as he walked up to the desk.


    Janik sighed. ¡°I¡¯ll pay for my own.¡±


    He didn¡¯t seem happy about it, but he sounded adamant with his statement.


    Sam was fine with this, it felt better than if Sam were to pay for everything. The two masks that Sam was getting, for himself and Dia, made up $650 000, bumped to 682 500 after the 5% markup. However, he found out that the Cores he got from the Dungeon on the Second floor only ended up at 450 000, with the markup it would then only cover about $428 500, the remaining 200 000 he had to get from his account.


    He wasn¡¯t happy about it, but he didn¡¯t have much of a choice.


    That said, he considered leaving Dia behind as he went through all this after all her XP progression meant that even if he got several levels here, it wouldn¡¯t take much for her to catch up with a few kills on the next Floor. And it wasn¡¯t like she got extra loot, and the stuff he¡¯d give to her from his own would happen regardless. But this was all put aside when he considered that this kind of mask was a good idea to have regardless, as it was an almost infinite amount of air in small quantities at a time, as long as they had Aether gems.


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    If nothing else, Sam was a bit glad that he didn¡¯t use all his money on things, or he would have to go back and grind even more to get to this point. He was also happy to realize that though Dia¡¯s mask needed some special adjustment given her face shape, it was included in the cost and after they had all paid the absurd amount of money for the glorified gasmasks.


    The only consolidation was that now they had them, and the fact that they were this expensive everywhere if they wanted the kind to work underwater, so...


    ¡°Thank you for your business,¡± the man smiled at them as he waved his hand past the pile of Cores, having them disappear like Sam¡¯s Item Box.


    Leaving the little hut, Janik and Sam were visibly annoyed, Dia was too confused and intrigued by the weird thing placed over her face as she had not taken it off yet. Though it did take some coaxing and explanation to allow Sam to put it over her face, having something around her mouth and nose like that was not natural to her. Now she at least tolerated it and found it interesting how she could breathe in it.


    ¡°Dia can¡¯t smell anything,¡± she suddenly commented, breaking both Janik and Sam out of their annoyance.


    ¡°That¡¯s probably because the air is created inside the mask,¡± Janik explained.


    ¡°Air... created?¡± Dia tilted her head in confusion.


    The following attempts to try and explain things to her bottom line to the fact that it was magic, she couldn¡¯t smell anything with it on. Which she accepted more than any actual attempts to explain it specifically.


    ¡°So, you want to give these a test, or you just want to relax a bit first?¡± Janik asked, vaguely pointing to the ocean behind him.


    Sam was interested, he had never gone diving before, at least not more than a snorkel and a mask. He hadn¡¯t gotten to try out diving with an air tank or something like these Player devices replaced. They came with a simple one-page user manual that Dia was doing her best to read through the mask. Though it wasn¡¯t a problem seeing through it, the problem was more that some words didn¡¯t make sense to her yet. The guide explained how the mask would let you know how much air you had left with a small light you could see in the corner of your eye, and how to recharge it. It was made to be simple to use so this wasn¡¯t an issue.


    ¡°I think I¡¯ll relax for the rest of today... I had... a lot happening.¡± Though Sam was filled with interest and intrigue for this new place, not to mention that he wanted to let Dia just roam free for a bit to get a sense of freedom, he was tired. The Player Vitality only stretched so far when you didn¡¯t put points into it.


    ¡°I thought as much,¡± Janik smiled back. ¡°We can go back now, I¡¯m gonna test this thing in the bathtub, at least I have more control than the ocean.¡± Sporting a childlike smile he looked like he wanted to at least play with his new toy.


    In his defence, it was a good idea, even if there was a bit of childish glee behind it.


    Heading back to Earth, Sam got a popup as soon as he did, an information window about Elara levelling up. This should ping her to know that they are back as well.


    ¡°So, just split up here and meet again tomorrow?¡± Sam commented, not yet sure what to do with Elara. She seemed to enjoy it with the kids, so he didn¡¯t mind her being there but it was feeling a bit odd with how he wasn¡¯t even bringing her. Perhaps he should let her hunt around on the island while they go do Dungeon things.


    Janik was on his phone almost immediately, which wasn¡¯t uncommon when they returned to Earth after a day away.


    ¡°Yeah, I think that¡¯s fine.¡± Though he answered Sam, his focus was on his phone.


    Sam gave him a minute to go through hand replies to his messages, he knew this was important to him as he assumed it to be from his kids.


    ¡°Huh...¡± Janik accidentally let out as he read something on his phone. ¡°It seems that Grace, Ethan and Elara found a strange and fun idea.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, if you don¡¯t use her Venom, you can sell it. Many ranger and rogue types would love some venom. And hers is getting rather strong, isn¡¯t it?¡± Janik explained, ending with a question.


    ¡°Yeah, I think so. With your Vitality of 17, if we put her level-up point in her Vit, then you have no chance to resist it. It only does 5 damage per tick but... without external help, I think you might be fucked.¡± Sam answered honestly, checking the System for the result and math if he bumped her Vit with her current free point.


    ¡°Ok.. that¡¯s fucking terrifying, but that¡¯s my point, selling this to others for a sum per dose can give you quite the income!¡± Janik exclaimed.


    ¡°Oh... that makes a lot of sense,¡± Sam joined. ¡°I can think of several problematic bosses that have a Vit score below the resist threshold, a ranger with a good shot can just hit them and hide.¡± This sounded like a decent idea, but Sam had a second thought.


    ¡°But... can¡¯t this then be used for PvP? I mean... If a low-level person has some... issues with a higher-level one, throw some money at a dose and poke them with it. As said, you¡¯re level 23 and a level 1 Player could take you out with this...¡±


    ¡°Ah.. well. Though true, that can be said for many things. Having some good skills or scaling, a good weapon, or like the fuckers that attacked us, they could just attack in our sleep and tie us up or something. Doesn¡¯t matter how good your stats are if you can¡¯t use them.¡± His tone sounded more like he was persuading himself than explaining it to Sam.


    ¡°That¡¯s a good point, like any tool it¡¯s a weapon both for good and bad depending on how, or rather; who uses it,¡± Sam commented, realizing that as long as he could make sure that this doesn¡¯t come back and bite him later, he didn¡¯t care that much. ¡°I¡¯ll just check with TAC, if all goes well we can just have her around there or something.¡±


    Sam liked this idea, though it would probably not rake in money to the point that he would get some solid funding, it would give Elara something to do. And besides, all money is good money when it comes to it.


    ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll bring her tomorrow morning, we can go through things then,¡± Janik smiled as he finally put his phone away. ¡°But I think I need to head back, got stuff to do before I head to bed.¡±


    He left the two without giving Sam a moment to properly respond besides saying his goodbyes.


    Dia and Sam headed back to TAC. He had free living there, after all, so there was no need to not stay there compared to anywhere else. Going through the normal process of getting a room, and having derogatory comments whispered around them, they soon found themselves back in their room.


    It didn¡¯t take many seconds for Dia to rid herself of clothing like normal, something Sam had gotten used to, to a certain degree at least.


    ¡°Dia,¡± Sam started, wondering about many things but specifically about one thing just now. ¡°Why do you hate clothing that much? Is it in the way or...?¡±


    Dia had jumped onto the sofa and was shuffling around on all fours like a pet looking for a hidden snack, but she perked up as Sam spoke to her.


    ¡°Dia not like clothes. Not in way, but fur important, it feel free, clothes press fur, hide.¡±


    ¡°So... Showing off your fur coat is important to you?¡± Sam was piecing together things but needed confirmation.


    She nodded, emphasising it with a confirming yip. ¡°Coat show health, good health is sign of good Zar. Important.¡±


    They talked about this a bit more, but it seemed that it boiled down to that clothing wasn¡¯t entirely uncomfortable and it had its use, like the cold weather clothing on the mountain. But it pressed her fur and made it look matted or something, a glossy and well-maintained coat was a show of her good health and worked as a status badge, of sorts, for Sam. In her culture, this meant that he was treating her well and was a good provider. So her visual status was important for him as well, at least in her mind.


    Her naturalism was also a result of habit, having lived her life like that it just felt like the more natural thing. There were also other aspects related to grooming and non-sexual intimacy that came with it, so there was a list of things which had her dislike it, but luckily it wasn¡¯t to the point that she hated clothing.


    ¡°In forest... jungle... Dia home, Dia want run free.¡± She smiled in the end with the tone almost sounding like a request.


    Sam took note of it, he expected this when he was there so he wanted this for her as well but he would have to find a good spot or something.


    For now, he sat down and decided to take a gander at the marketplace, seeing if something was interesting he could spend his remaining 2.7 million on. As tomorrow they would try out a dungeon on the Third Floor.

 Ch.086 - Elaras wishes

    Waking up the next day to the norm of being wrapped up in a personal heated fur blanket of sorts, Sam had no chance to get out of bed without waking her. Something he was becoming more certain of, was on purpose.


    It wasn¡¯t that he minded, but at the same time, he would like to let her sleep even if he got up, something impossible in that condition. Her calm purring-infused breathing stopped as he woke and started to move, having her see that he was awake before stretching without getting off.


    The rest of the morning went through as normal, Sam sent Janik a message as agreed and went through the process of getting ready and dressed. The latter was something Sam had a different view on in regards to Dia, but she was in a Human society now and had to adapt. Besides, even if he let her roam around without clothing later, he was a bit uncertain about letting her roam around without Armour, but that would become a talk for later.


    Nothing of interest happened during their morning routine, Sam had checked the market last night but there wasn¡¯t much of interest there, at least not within his budget, taking a quick check now this changed, there was one skill he found that he wanted. Pyroclastic Blade, was a D-rank passive skill that adds a low fraction of fire damage to all hits. Hitting the buy button and paying for it to make sure he got it before anyone else beat him to it. The system finally confirmed that the purchase was successful and that $575 000 had been deducted from his account.


    It felt almost a bit scary, how easy it was to buy something digitally, though he had to validate himself and log in, it was just a few clicks and done. He could understand how people blow their savings on things like these. Another thing was how easy it was to blow over half a million on something in a few clicks, and how he was fine with it.


    Ignoring the damage to his sense of monetary value, he was happy that he got the Skill Crystal. He set his first goal on the desk so he could pick it up on his way.


    Entering the room where you received your purchases was always somewhat secure; if not, anyone could just snap and steal the item without problems. Imagine if Sam was across the room with a range-extended Psyhand and just stole things with his Item Box. The odds of this were low, but it at least seemed like it was a precaution taken anyway.


    The process was easy. He entered, properly identified himself with proof of ID, and got his purchase. Activating it right away, he was happy to see that even though it was just a D-rank skill and had a 1/10 calculation, it had a minimum of 1 damage regardless, which made it much more practical for the cheapest daggers.


    [ Pyroclasm Blade - D-rank - Passive


    Infuses your weapon with fire, adding bonus damage with each hit.


    - Adds 1/10 base weapon damage as fire damage, minimum 1. ]


    On that topic, it was about time to upgrade from the cheapest daggers. He was still wielding 14x of the 5-damage daggers, they did a little damage, yes, and triggered Static Charge but they were much too weak. Getting 14x 20dmg daggers cost him $1 400 000. However, it would increase the pure physical damage from 70, between those daggers, to 280. And this was without considering the added damage from Thunder Strike or Pyroclasm Blade. It was a hefty cost but worth it considering that they would go against higher health targets on the Third Floor. Besides, though at a reduced cost he could always sell things later.


    He was also carrying a staggering amount of 5-damage blades, getting rid of those wasn¡¯t going to earn him much, and the market was oversaturated with them as well, so he might as well find something to use them on. Perhaps try out the empowered launch thing he did with the wooden dummy the other day.


    Leaving the pickup room, he headed for the mess hall where he was going to meet Janik, and it seemed that he was there already, eating with Elara coiled on the table.


    As they came over, Elara slithered over and extended herself off the table, coiling around and climbing Sam¡¯s outstretched hand to end up draped around his neck and shoulders, pushing the top of her head against his neck.


    They sat down and started eating, Janik didn¡¯t wait and started with his explanations.


    ¡°So, I have checked out the Third Floor, like the others we¡¯re most likely not going to meet many Players there since they want to rush to the Fourth Floor and all that. The Third Floor also means that Players are stronger, so the PvP fucks who want to prey on the weak tend to not frequent there so... We¡¯re not going to be alone, but we kind of might be.¡±


    Sam felt that this information might be for his, or rather, Dia¡¯s sake.


    ¡°I also finally took the plunge and got myself a skill.¡± Suddenly changing the topic. ¡°Have a look.¡±


    Without hesitation, Sam had a look at Janik through his Appraisal. Everything was as he remembered except one addition.


    [ Counter Stance, C-rank


    -Prepares for an incoming physical attack, starting a timer, if hit during this timer the user counterattacks immediately.


    -Damage is not automatically negated. ]


    Lifting an eyebrow, Sam noticed the last bit of information.


    ¡°That doesn¡¯t seem too safe. You might take a ton of damage that way...¡±


    ¡°Oh, naturally. I think it¡¯s made for high Defence tanks, but if I mix it with Active Defence. As a parry counts as a kind of hit. I had a quick read on things and it seems other Players have figured that out, and tested it, so it should be good.¡± He looked super happy with a wide smile.


    ¡°In that case, it¡¯s much more practical. And on that topic, I got a skill of my own. Nothing amazing, just a D-rank fire damage addition to physical attacks,¡± Sam smiled, knowing the value of this with his combat style.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s going to be fun to see used underwater,¡± Janik grinned at him.


    ¡°.... you got a good point there,¡± Sam sounded uncertain, he hadn¡¯t considered that but it did make him consider something worse.


    ¡°Though, how will my electric damage work underwater...¡±


    Janik smiled. ¡°You need to read up on things on your own at some point. Stuff just works like normal, which I know doesn¡¯t make sense, but I suppose the System aids the lack of logic. Though some creatures in there have fire resistance.¡±


    ¡°That makes sense,¡± Sam commented aimed at the fire resistance. ¡°And the System keeps... helping... I guess,¡± he added dryly.


    ¡°The system giveth, and the system taketh,¡± Janik replied with a sage nod.


    It almost annoyed Sam that Janik knew what he was talking about, making the joke more on the nose than it had any right to be.


    Feeling some annoyance building up, he was feeling eager for some way to get his aggression out, but before that Sam changed the subject and focused on Elara.


    ¡°I was told yesterday that you had an idea with some of his kids?¡±


    He knew what the idea was, but he wanted her to explain it from her angle.


    Extending her head out from Sam¡¯s body, she anchored herself around his shoulders, so she could properly look him in the face.


    ¡°Yes,¡± replying simply with a happy smile, Sam could feel the tip of her tail almost wag as she continued. ¡°Ethan explained that some monsters could be hard in the Dungeon, that they had to run around and hide. But Grace had the idea of using my Venom to help.¡±


    She looked almost sad for a brief moment. ¡°I... took the liberty of giving him a dose of my Venom to test with, we put it on a dagger that his party member used to throw at a target. He said it worked perfectly, it just took some time.¡±


    Sam quickly checked the math of her Venom 2 ability, and anything with a Vitality of 16 or lower is just dead. If he remembered correctly this meant anything up through most of Floor 2, though some Golems would be fine, in the End Dungeon the Frost Wraiths, Shatterbacks and Blizzard Whisps had below that, so it was a good thing to use even at higher levels. Something with 20 in Vit, like the Ice Drakes, still only had a 20% chance to succeed in their resistance, so it was potent.


    And it could grow stronger if they inflated her Vitality.


    ¡°That¡¯s great to hear,¡± Sam commented, mostly to put her at ease of using her Venom without permission. He wanted to tell her that she could decide these things on her own, but this didn¡¯t seem like the time, since she had shown hints of somewhat wanting to consider him her master in more than just a title.


    Her smile came back and her little wagging intensified.


    ¡°We had the idea that, if you allow it, I could sell the venom to other Players, that way I can be of some help.¡± Her smile faded ever so slightly at the end before it came back a second later.


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Sam couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit guilty at that. Though it was never an intent, he did bring her into this world but due to the randomness of how things worked, she came out as a glass cannon-like creature. She can do considerable damage with her Venom but, even with 22 Vit, she only had 65 HP. And though that was amazing if you compared it to what Sam had for quite a time, at their current level nothing could -not- kill her in one hit. She didn¡¯t even have a Defence rating.


    Though she had come with them for Dungeons here and there, she had not done anything but be a Passenger. The occasional Venom application, yes, but in total. Dia, who is a newer addition to the party is a valuable combatant as well as other things. Elara might feel neglected as the only time she was given the total focus for a day, Sam disappeared for a while.


    If nothing else, Sam felt confident that she could handle herself in social situations, since she got them to get hold of Janik on her own.


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to feel like you need to be of h-¡± Sam wanted to reassure her that she didn¡¯t need to feel any pressure to do anything. Sure he brought her into this world, mainly through intrigue, but in his eyes, she didn¡¯t owe him anything.


    However, he was interrupted.


    ¡°I want to!¡± She exclaimed to the point of having the other tables nearby react. She calmed her voice but looked at him with determination in her eyes. ¡°I want to. I feel the need to be useful to you, I want to be useful to you. I know I¡¯ll die if I go and fight the things you fight, but this lets me do at least something.¡±


    Sam wanted to reply, but he didn¡¯t have anything he could say. She wanted to do this, which was enough in his mind. He wanted her to be a person... snake... whatever, for her own sake. And even though this was for his sake, it was something she wanted to do. So, who was he to stand against her wishes after he had said that she needed to do what she wanted?


    ¡°I don¡¯t see a problem with that. If you want to do this, for whatever reason, I won¡¯t stop you. But, we might have to check with TAC, just in case there are some weird rules or something.¡±


    As soon as he agreed to her wishes, he could feel her tense up a little, her smile grew larger and the tiny tip of her tail wagged even more than before.


    ¡°As a bonus, I was considering bringing you with us to the Third Floor. I don¡¯t want you to fight anything but I thought you might like to have fun in the jungle.¡± As he spoke he took out his phone and found some images in the guide app of the flora and island, showing it as a tropical paradise... if you ignored the Dungeons and System... stuff...


    This widened her eyes even more, confirming to Sam that this was the right thing to do.


    ¡°Now, we haven¡¯t gotten any breathing thingy for you, so you can¡¯t come with us in the dungeons, but you can... do snake things, I guess.¡± He smiled. He didn¡¯t mean anything negative with that statement, it was just the best way he could define it. Ans Andce she had referred to her instinct and wishes related to that before, it felt appropriate.


    ¡°Now,¡± Sam continued, having ignored the others long enough. ¡°Let¡¯s go talk to Tac to see about the Venom thing, and we¡¯ll go to the Third Floor afterwards.¡±


    Stopping himself right after getting up from the table, he realised something vital he had missed. ¡°That reminds me, I assume you want the point in Vitality, then?¡±


    Elara smiled wide at him and simply nodded, having her Vitality stat boosted by a point.


    Leaving, they headed for the reception to at least get to know who to talk to regarding this, there were no lines and several available counters, though most of them stood empty on both sides.


    Walking up to one with a middle-aged man behind, he welcomed them with a smile, asking how he could be of assistance.


    Sliding his ID card over as he returned the greeting, Sam went straight to the point.


    ¡°Yeah... I don¡¯t know how to ask this but... My companion here-¡± he referred to Elara who perked up as he did. ¡°-would like to sell her venom to Players who might want it.¡±


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s a unique one, let¡¯s see here,¡± he mused to himself as he wrote something on a computer behind the counter, using a moment to search through things.


    ¡°It seems one of the easier things could be to consider it a crafted product and sell it as a crafter. Though I see that she¡¯s registered and... is smart enough to talk?¡±


    She nodded as the question looked more directed at her. ¡°I can talk and communicate on my own.¡±


    ¡°Ah, that makes things easier. Since you¡¯re a companion it has to be registered on your Player... Sam.¡± He looked at Sam almost to confirm who he was, checking his card and something on the computer he looked satisfied. ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s not an issue. Do you want to sell it to us like any other object to be sold on the market, or set up a crafter¡¯s booth?¡±


    ¡°Crafter¡¯s booth?¡± Sam asked with a raised eyebrow, he had an idea what it was in context but he wanted to make sure.


    ¡°Crafters often make their things elsewhere and have a booth, a stand if you will, where they sell things under the protection of TAC, it¡¯s much safer than in Aetheria, as you can imagine. It also lets you register what you have for sale to let people know beforehand, getting you customers who know what they want which might give more purchases. As a result of this, TAC will take a 10% commission fee.¡±


    Sam pondered, this wasn¡¯t a bad deal, safety and relatively decent access to customers. ¡°What if nothing is sold? And we¡¯re selling Venom... powerful Venom... isn¡¯t there anything we should consider about legality or something?¡±


    Wanting to know this beforehand seemed to get a chuckle in response.


    ¡°If you don¡¯t sell anything, there is no money to take the fees from, so that¡¯s free. And if crafters can sell all sorts of poisons, potions, weapons and more, what¡¯s Venom to the list?¡± He seemed almost a bit amused.


    ¡°Well... it¡¯s powerful and can kill players with a prick?¡± Sam tried to make it sound worse than it perhaps was to get a proper answer.


    ¡°And a dagger, sword or axe can¡¯t do the same?¡± Though he didn¡¯t chuckle this time, he did seem oddly amused at Sam¡¯s uncertainty. ¡°No, I understand your thoughts, but there is no problem. Like anything sold on the market, nothing is ¡®bad¡¯ unless used for bad.¡± He made air quotes around ¡®bad¡¯.


    ¡°Player versus Player is illegal, but... as you might expect... There is no proper way to handle any of it.¡± The man ended that topic by shaking his head, seeming to not be fond of it as a whole.


    ¡°But, enough about that. Should we handle the registration?¡±


    ¡°Err... yes, I don¡¯t see why not. Since she can talk and she¡¯s registered with me, I assume she can come and go as she wants, she doesn¡¯t need me around at all times, right?¡±


    ¡°Not at all, we handle the details in the system, so she just needs to identify herself, and there¡¯s only so many with her System Title linking her to you, so I don¡¯t see a problem there.¡± The man smiled at Sam before he turned the focus to Elara.


    Sam gave them a few minutes, and the man spoke to her directly asking her the important questions, since Sam was there he could interject or whatever if he felt the need. But this was to be her thing anyway so he didn¡¯t want to get more involved than needed.


    Instead, he opted to discuss things with Janik and Dia.


    ¡°The first Dungeon, like most of the island, we¡¯ll mostly meet are Reefclaws who are large spiked crabs, Tidecallers who are something like water elementals, Skewerfish who are... long fish, Coral Stalkers who are lizard-like chameleon things, and Murkwales, basically large whale-like creatures. Everything has Defence ratings now.¡± Though there was an annoyed tone in his voice, there was also a strange hinting tone.


    Sam assumed it was hinting that Janik taught him how to get through Defence, which was good, but he was milking that a bit much.


    ¡°Yes, yes. You¡¯re a good teacher,¡± Sam agreed, perhaps it was about time to give him some credit.


    Puffing his chest, Janik accepted the compliment before continuing.


    ¡°Glad to hear you think so. But things are now over level 40, and we¡¯re not. So it might be smart to take it calmly, perhaps try out how our skills work underwater before we brave a dungeon.¡±


    Nodding in agreement, Sam had to admit that was not a bad idea. He had moved his Psyhands underwater before but never attacked anything. ¡°We can go for a swim and see how things work out.¡±


    Dia was looking excited as they were sounding ready to go, Sam assumed it was because of her going back to the jungle. Elara was discussing things with the receptionist, based on how it was sounding there shouldn¡¯t be much left to discuss before they could properly head to the Third Floor.

 Ch.087 - Crab!

    The talks between Elara and the receptionist had come to an end. The result was that the money she earned from this in one day would go into a TAC account in Sam¡¯s name, and their cut would be taken at the end of the day before transferring the rest to Sam¡¯s main account. Elara would show up and get an available slot, she didn¡¯t need a large one, just a corner or shelf somewhere, but she would get a payment terminal and all that stuff, on loan. It was a pretty good deal.


    When she¡¯s done for the day, if that is when she chooses that she¡¯s done or when she¡¯s out of product, since TAC is open 24/7 there is no time limit on how long or often she can be there.


    However, to get everything properly registered, it would take at least a few hours to go through everything, so she couldn¡¯t join immediately. Due to this, she opted to go with the group for now.


    Leaving for the Tower they soon found themselves back in the tropical paradise that¡¯s the Third Floor. Had it not been for yesterday''s massive expense, it would be all positive... at least for now.


    Janik had, as Janik does, already checked the Guide material and found out where to go for the easier and lower-level monsters, which was towards the archipelago they saw yesterday. The weather was still nice, and everything was idyllic, perhaps save for the thought that in not long, they would be underwater surrounded by gore and death.


    ¡°Zar,¡± Dia stated to get his attention as she tugged on Sam¡¯s coat. ¡°Dia... want to run... In for- Jungle.¡± Correcting herself midword she looked almost pleading.


    Sam couldn¡¯t help but laugh. She had somewhat explained the thrill about this earlier, and since they were just walking to get to a certain spot, there was no reason not to let her go.


    ¡°Sure, keep your armour on at least, but have fun, we¡¯re going down there.¡± Pointing at a landmark for her to find them in case she went too far.


    Smiling widely she just disappeared into the forest on all fours, looking surprisingly happy for something so mundane in Sam¡¯s mind. Janik and Sam shared a chuckle as they continued towards the ocean, based on distance and speed it would take about an hour or so.


    ¡°We need to be on the lookout for the Tidecallers,¡± Janik broke the silence with some info as he showed Sam an image of one, it looked like a super vague humanoid shape of water, having runes along its body. ¡°They are water mages of sorts, they can slam you into things underwater and are surprisingly stealthy.¡±


    He swapped images and showed Sam an underwater image, the only part he could see was the runes which looked like they were floating around in water on their own. ¡°They only have a few spells, but at least we¡¯re lucky and Defence works against them.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s convenient,¡± Sam replied. And it was, he had been hit by things that ignored Defence before and it was... not pleasant.


    ¡°There are mages on this Floor, proper mages, so that¡¯s going to be interesting. For now, I say we do as planned, go test out the breathing thingy, and try underwater combat with a single target to start with,¡± Janik smiled, focusing on what¡¯s important.


    They kept walking, talking about things they needed to test like how it was to attack and move underwater, or how the shocking and fire things would work. Though the Guide already explained it, they wanted to get a rough feel for it.


    Static Charge already confirmed that the pulse won¡¯t hit the user, so Sam is safe, but that didn¡¯t do anything for Dia and Janik.


    The walk didn¡¯t take as long as they expected, though, in the middle of a jungle, a path had been maintained enough to walk comfortably, so they didn¡¯t have to trek as much as they just had to walk.


    Finding themselves exiting the forest line onto a large and flat beach, it was almost idyllic how perfect it was. Long, covered in pale sand, waves washing up and retreating, the odd boulder here and there but all in all it was a perfect vacation spot. To the point that it almost felt weird that it wasn¡¯t too hot with normal clothing on.


    The main issue was the local fauna, they were lucky enough to find a single target instead of a group, but the single target was a crab whose central body was the size of a car, with glowing blue eyes, spikes along its shell and powerful-looking claws.


    [ Reefclaw


    Level: 42


    STR: 18


    DEX: 6


    VIT: 25


    SPT: 3


    HP: 945 / 945


    Damage: Heavy Pinch 134, Tidal Slam 52, Crushing Grip 276.


    Defence: 100


    Abilities: HP Boon, STR boon, Tidal Slam, Crushing Grip. ]


    [ Tidal Slam: Gathering water around your swing you can send forth a wave of water, knocking targets back. ]


    [ Crushing Grip: If you land an attack on a target you can grab them. Crushing Grip makes it extremely hard to get free. ]


    Sam appraised it from afar and shared the findings with Janik.


    ¡°It has 945 health, 100 Defence, and if it grabs you it¡¯ll hold you hard and keep squeezing. And it can swing water at us with a knockback.¡±


    It was a simple explanation that covered what Sam felt was appropriate.


    ¡°How much damage does it do?¡± Janik added, asking a quite vital thing that Sam didn¡¯t properly consider to share.


    ¡°It can pinch you for 134, the Crushing does 276 and the water thing does 52. I guess that it¡¯ll go for a pinch and grab onto you then and keep squeezing, crabs are strong so...¡± Sam had no proper basis for it besides speculation and that normal crabs were absurdly strong with their exoskeleton, leveraging their tiny strength into something massive.


    ¡°Yeah... so.. Don¡¯t get hit, but that 100 Defence and 900 health is the problem,¡± Janik mused.


    ¡°I think I can do fine, it¡¯s on land now so... give it a go before we go into the water. You want to have a go first or should I just do my thing?¡± Sam was slightly eager, and he felt extremely confident.


    Just looking at his numbers he should be fine.


    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m also confident that you have this, but I think I¡¯ll give it a go. Be ready to help if needed, ok?¡± Sounding a bit hesitant at the end, he seemed to trust Sam enough to give this a go even at his surprisingly low level compared to the crab.


    ¡°Sure thing;¡± Sam replied as he guided Elara down to the forest floor before disappearing entirely.


    ¡°That... just feels wrong...¡± Janik let out as his backup disappeared from his sight.


    ¡°Yeah, but I¡¯m still here,¡± Sam replied as he used a Psyhand to pat Janik on the head.


    Sighing a moment before psyching himself up, Janik pulled his two swords and went for it. Walking calmly towards the crab to get as close as he could before something happened, and it didn¡¯t take long for it to do so.


    It was doing something in the shallows but one of its eyestalks suddenly lifted and looked towards Janik. It eyed him for a few seconds before turning around its massive body and charging him. Showing surprising agility with its massive body, and in the sand no less.


    The distance was closed in seconds and as it came into range it lifted both its claws, stabbing them down towards Janik. Sam had moved into range to be ready at a moment''s notice.


    Janik jumped closer ending up too close for the attack to hit, as the pincers pierced the sand Janik was underneath its body, with a powerful thrust he stabbed both his swords upwards.


    [ HP: 565 / 945 ]


    A solid hit. The crab let out a weird hissing and bubbling sound as it reacted by stepping to the side, getting out of sword reach. It looked agitated as its movements were challenging and jittery.


    It went for another attack, again sending one of its claws out like a spear towards Janik. He didn¡¯t seem to dodge this time but took a solid stance with one leg behind him almost as if he was bracing for impact, his swords were lifted in an X in front of him. As the claw crashed into it there was almost a glint of light as Janik¡¯s body moved almost unnaturally fast, redirecting the blow just enough to miss but also having one of his arms swing around and slamming his sword into the crab¡¯s claw.


    [ HP: 425 / 945 ]


    Sam silently reacted to the trade of blows, this felt like perhaps he tried out his counterattack ability, and since Janik¡¯s health didn¡¯t change he must have successfully blended it with Active Defence.


    Appraising Janik confirmed his theory, there was a new skill on the list!


    [ Active counter (Synergy skill)


    By blending Active Defence and Counter Stance the user can parry without taking damage and deliver a counter strike in return.


    -This skill requires at least two attacks.


    -This only works against one attack at a time and can only deliver a single strike. ]


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    Sam didn¡¯t know if he had merged those skills before, or if he did it right now, but it looked amazing.


    The crab delivered another attack, but Janik repeated the action and had him parry and strike at the virtual same time. An amazing sight that slowly trickled away at the crab¡¯s health.


    [ HP:  285 / 945 ]


    Stepping away before stepping back in, the crab came forth with both its claws, Janik sidestepped one of them and managed to parry the second, though there was no counterattack this time. It was also an amazing sight; seeing a normal-looking human actively redirect all that strength and weight.


    As Janik was going in for the last attack, the crab swung its claw towards him, a shimmering field of water had covered it from nowhere and loosened itself at the peak of the swing, making its way towards Janik like a flying wave. However, Janik seemed prepared for it and managed to drop down into the sand to have it miss, it splashed with great enough force against the sand behind him to dig out a small crater.


    Stumbling back to his legs he went for the crab again, though the Crab had other ideas. Stepping backwards, its method of movement was superior on the loose sand, it let out a stabbing attack towards Janik once more.


    Janik¡¯s smile turned into a grin as the swords came back up into an X, the claw contacted the same blink-and-miss-it movement from Janik changed his stance and swung his sword at the Giant Crab¡¯s claw, landing a solid hit.


    [ HP:  145 / 945 ]


    The crab stepped away, looking panicked... as far as a faceless crustation could. Rather than fight it turned around and made for the ocean at great speed.


    ¡°Sam, I can¡¯t run on this sand... Finish it off, please,¡± Janik commented in no specific direction like someone ordering an airstrike.


    Sam did as requested, 145 health remaining had him only manifest a few named weapons they dug themselves through the thick shell as the crab stopped its legs and fell forward mid-step.


    Janik sighed with a satisfied expression as he sheathed his swords. Looking around he couldn¡¯t find Sam and chuckled.


    ¡°You know, you not coming into view even after attacking is oddly terrifying.¡±


    Sam returned his weapons to the Item Box, and as he dismissed the Psyhands he deactivated Invisibility, standing a bit of distance away from Janik as he had been moving around a lot.


    ¡°I know, right,¡± he smiled almost excitedly.


    [ Experience gained: +7 500 000. ]


    Sam¡¯s eyes widened at the number change, this was the first enemy they had met here and it gave more than the Leviathan on the last floor... And this was just his half of it. The balancing of the System needs some work. But that could also be the reward for making it to this Floor.


    ¡°Oh, nine more of these and I¡¯ll level up!¡± San exclaimed happily.


    ¡°I just need the one,¡± Janik smiled in return, looking satisfied with the events so far.


    ¡°Well, I feel satisfied with that test, on land at least. The next thing is to see how it goes in water.¡± Lifting his hand to scratch his chin with his thumb and bent index finger, he looked towards the water.


    ¡°Well, yes, but first you gotta tell me about that counter of yours.¡± Sam knew Janik was an experienced combatant, but since Sam had been doing all the fighting for... a while, he had halfway forgotten Janik¡¯s level of experience. Making this scene surprisingly exciting and amazing to behold.


    His excitement came out a bit based on Janik¡¯s expression.


    ¡°Ah, you like that, eh?¡± His wide smile came back, the compliment going straight to his ego. ¡°I¡¯m very glad it worked out as I didn¡¯t get to test it first,¡± ending with a small nervous chuckle it was clear he meant what he said.


    ¡°That movement looked almost unnatural, it was pretty cool, to be honest!¡±


    Janik¡¯s ego-boosted smile became oddly embarrassed, though it didn¡¯t disappear entirely it was clear that he wasn¡¯t too used to that level of eagerness towards him.


    Though in the midst of all of this, his expression changed with a thought. ¡°If you get yourself a counterattack ability and learn this... You¡¯ll be unstoppable...¡±


    Sam hadn¡¯t considered that, but he was somewhat right. Depending on how it scaled he had 50 hands at the moment, not counting his normal ones. A mix of this could make him even more of a one-man army than he already was.


    He needed to look out for a counterattack skill.


    A few more minutes passed as they both gushed about Janik¡¯s amazing movement, Sam replicating it almost to show Janik how he was moving. Janik smiled back and explained that it didn¡¯t even hurt, even though the guided movement made it look like it would tear his arms off. It did feel weird, though, being guided that fast.


    Dia came out of the forest line not long after, her fur was covered in mud, leaves, and small sticks and she looked like she had been rolling around the entire place. She was walking on all fours, both her tails high and wagging as she came walking over with what looked like a dead large rat. Sam had heard of jungle rats before but he didn¡¯t know they were real.


    She looked incredibly proud of herself as she came walking over, ignoring the giant crab in the distance as she stopped in front of Sam, dropping the dead rat near his feet and looking at him with the most adorable excited expression.


    Sam just looked at the situation with a confused expression. He understood that pets tended to give their owners ¡®the hunt¡¯ as a kind of gift but... What should he do about it?


    ¡°I... Think I¡¯m flattered but... what should I do with this?¡± He ended up asking hesitantly.


    Janik was struggling to not break down in laughter.


    ¡°Var griv, ryth thir Zar,¡± Dia replied in her native tongue, looking even prouder.


    Sam was happy that he understood her. She had taught him enough that he could even analyze the value of the words.


    Var was a reference to self, similar to Me, or I. Griv was Hunt or rather the act of hunting. Ryth was a special word, it meant Gift, but it was not the only word meaning this, Ryk also meant gift. Ryth was an emotionally important gift, not something you just give to anyone. Thir was a reference to prey,., so in the context of hunting it was the rat in this case. And Zar was her already well-used word for Mate.


    Directly translated, this became; I hunt, gift prey Mate.


    Translated with context, it meant that she had hunted, and she was giving Sam an important gift; the prey from the hunt. Which he knew was an important thing for most animals as well as her culture.


    ¡°Well... I¡¯m flattered but... I¡¯m going to be honest and say that I don¡¯t know what to do with it...¡±


    Janik failed to contain his laughter, seeing this from his angle must have been amusing.


    ¡°Is yours,¡± Dia added as she got up on her hind legs, becoming bipedal. ¡°You do what you want.¡± She smiled wide and looked at him excitedly like she wanted to see what he¡¯d do with it.


    Sam... didn¡¯t have words for this, she was so absurdly excited about giving him this dead, bloodied rodent, that he couldn¡¯t just throw it away... He crouched down and poked it, putting it into his Item Box.


    ¡°I¡¯ll store it for now...¡±


    Janik was calming down a little but still having fun with this, Dia was ignoring him and smiled even wider and more satisfied that Sam was storing it.


    ¡°Aaaanyway, since you clearly need it,¡± Sam commented with a drawn-out sound to change the subject as he was looking at Dia¡¯s dirty self. ¡°I think we can give underwater combat some testing. I¡¯m sure there¡¯s something out here somewhere.¡±


    ¡°I think we¡¯ll test it in the shallows first, mainly for Dia¡¯s sake,¡± Sam commented as he took out his and Dia¡¯s mask, he expected the back of her head to struggle with the concept of breathing underwater.


    Janik nodded. ¡°Probably not a bad idea.¡±


    ¡°Elara!¡± Sam called out to the snake hiding in the forest.


    It didn¡¯t take many seconds before she popped her head out from a hiding spot, waving her body to make herself seen.


    ¡°We¡¯re going in the water for a while, you fine just waiting around here?¡± Sam continued now that he saw her.


    She simply nodded and pulled her head back down. Sam expected her to be hunting or something and... since she was so insecure about the Venom thing earlier he decided to give her a heads up right away.


    ¡°In case you wonder, you can use as much of your Venom as you want, it¡¯s yours, after all.¡±


    Elara didn¡¯t give any hints that she heard him, as she was already gone, but he knew she did, he spoke loud enough that it shouldn¡¯t be an issue.


    ¡°Then, shall we?¡± Sam asked as he motioned for the water towards Janik.


    He nodded and started walking, taking his own out of his backpack which was going to be filled with water in not long.

 Ch.088 - Fish!

    They spent some time in the shallows, testing the mask and seeing how things worked. And Sam was pleased to confirm that everything worked perfectly. In the back of his mind, he had the thought that it fucking better, considering the price they paid for these. It even fit properly on Dia, the rim around had some weirdness going on with some odd patterns and super soft spikes that looked like it could get enough through the fur to make it watertight.


    However, as expected, she struggled to breathe underwater, even with the mask on. There was something in her head that just refused to let her do it. But after a lot of explaining, showing and proving that Sam could breathe underwater, he proved this by breathing super heavily while being underwater with his mask, so she could see and hear it. She finally dared to try which had her be amazed by the magical device on her face.


    All the testing and over-heavy breathing had, in a strange sense, luckily emptied the stored energy so the little light signalling that it was recommended, but not yet critical, to recharge lit up. This let Sam explain and show Dia how this worked, and taught her that she needed to let him know when this happened, or just use a crystal to recharge it. Explaining and showing everything.


    After a solid while of this, they were finally ready to give diving a go. Janik was first out and disappeared into the water. Both he and Sam understood and had gone swimming in similar ways before, though Janik had used an air tank and Sam hadn¡¯t, at least Sam had used snorkels and just held his breath. So the concept of swimming in deep water wasn¡¯t weird. Dia wasn¡¯t entirely foreign to this either, but it was a new experience being able to breathe underwater like this.


    They dove into the water, stopping at a few body heights of depth as they started testing things. Talking worked fine, something Dia used repeatedly to mention that she could breathe underwater, being just as amazed every time.


    ¡°Dia, try to punch and kick, we need to see if you can fight underwater,¡± Sam commanded, moving her mind back to the important part.


    Sam had already been testing with his Psyhands and Invisibility. The latter was amusing, since he still displaced water there was a strange bubble where he was, meaning that though he was harder to see, it wasn¡¯t exactly invisible. He had hoped that the bending of light around him would have compensated for that, but it seems that it didn¡¯t.


    ¡°It¡¯s harder to move, I hoped that this would let me move more normally but... It¡¯s just like normal water,¡± Janik commented stating the obvious. He didn¡¯t have any activatable skills he could try out so it was a bit harder to confirm.


    ¡°Well... My hands move as normal, if it¡¯s in air or water it doesn¡¯t matter,¡± Sam explained. ¡°Though it¡¯s a bit interesting seeing them.¡±


    Just like his own body when invisible, they displaced the water creating a kind of high-definition bubble. He moved a few in front of him letting him take in their appearance, which was best described as ¡®default hands¡¯. They looked like human hands but without defining factors like wrinkles, nails or things like that, just simple hands.


    ¡°Ah, of course,¡± Janik commented in a dry, somewhat envious tone. ¡±Of course they work normally...¡±


    ¡°Hey, it¡¯s not my fault I¡¯m awesome,¡± Sam smiled back, forgetting that the mask hides all facial expressions.


    ¡°Dia... hard to punch, no kick.¡± Dia was struggling. Without any good footing, she wasn¡¯t able to transfer power through her body properly. Her punches and kicks still looked decent for being underwater, but when she did so her body rotated just as anyone else would.


    Sam expected her bites to be unaffected but... those came with other drawbacks.


    ¡°Well, I suppose we¡¯ll just have to fight a few things, see how that goes,¡± Sam added as he looked around in the water, hoping to see something they could have their first underwater attempt at.


    They had to swim about and look for a while, it wasn¡¯t like they were swarmed at all times, but eventually they found something. Or rather, they were found by something. A long and sleek fish the length of a person not counting its spear-like protrusion on its face. It had blade-like fins and glowing red patterns along its scales.


    [ Skewerfish


    Level: 43


    STR: 6


    DEX: 30


    VIT: 16


    SPT: 0


    HP: 350 / 350


    Damage: Razor Dash 280, Piercing Strike 280, Evasive Leap 104.


    Defence: 100


    Abilities: Dex Boon, Razor Dash, Piercing Strike, Evasive Leap. ]


    [ Razor Dash: Dashes past a target, slicing at them. ]


    [ Piercing Strike: Charge at a target, impaling them, a high chance to inflict bleeding. ]


    [ Evasive Leap: A defensive jump away from danger, can be used offensively by landing on a target. ]


    Sam almost chuckled at imagining this large fish landing on someone, but the hit-and-run tactic of its combat style could prove problematic underwater. At least for the ones that didn¡¯t have Sam¡¯s metaphorically long arms, that was.


    ¡°350 health, 100 Defence, hit and run tactics with spearing and slicing. 280 damage,¡± he shared with his group. Simple and concise information. He didn¡¯t mention the Evasive Leap damage as it was lower than the others and didn¡¯t seem likely underwater.


    ¡°280 damage, without a good way to dodge in the water... This is harsh,¡± Janik commented as he pulled his swords. ¡°But I want to give it a go, do your thing if it lands a hit on me.¡±


    Janik proceeded to hit his swords together. The metal-on-metal plink carried very well in the water, enough for Sam to feel and hear it. The fish noticed it well and set its sights on the man producing it immediately.


    It started swimming towards him and gained frightening speed in only a few seconds. Janik proceeded to take his defensive posture from when he fought the crab. As the fish used its long, blade-like fins to slice at Janik, the Synergy skill triggered, and he moved just as swiftly as he did on land, ignoring the resistance in the water. It was an absurd thing to see.


    [Skewerfish HP: 210 / 350 ]


    100 Defence against a single attack from Janik made this take a while. However, as long as he could keep it going he would eventually come out on top.


    The fish turned around and made another beeline towards the swordsman, and this time he didn¡¯t use his defensive form but seemed to try and dodge. He had zero chance and was sliced up quite badly.


    [ Janik HP: 55 / 220 ]


    Sam wondered what the fuck was going on, Janik, Mr Safety, why did he allow this to happen. He knew that he wouldn¡¯t be able to dodge properly so, what was the idea here? A critical hit would have outright killed him... He might be good defensively but he was no tank.


    Doing his side of the deal, not wanting to risk missing the fish and giving it a chance for a third run, Sam manifested his entire swarm and went for it.


    Over 1500 dealt damage later, the fish was shredded in the red mist where it slowly floated towards the seabed.


    ¡°The fuck is wrong with you?!¡± Sam called out to his nearly dying ally.


    Janik floated down to a rocky part of the seabed and just stood there for a moment. ¡°I grew overconfident... After the crab and feeling like I could dodge it, I wanted to try... That was extremely dumb...¡± He didn¡¯t sound entirely convinced by his statement.


    ¡°Drink some potions or something, don¡¯t just sta-¡± Sam was trying to get Janik to heal himself so he didn¡¯t die from... anything that might come for them, he noticed that Janik¡¯s HP was slowly increasing.


    At the moment he had forgotten one of the traits of Janik¡¯s Armour.


    [ Earthbound Vitality: Gradually restore 1% health over time when standing still on stone or earth. Effect triggers after standing still for 10 seconds. ]


    A strange thing to consider underwater, but he was glad to see that it was working.


    [ Experience gained: +6 000 000. ]


    ¡°Yes!¡± Janik exclaimed and didn¡¯t pay any attention to Sam.


    Seeing that Janik¡¯s level rose by one, Sam understood his reaction, but he wasn¡¯t completely happy about the topic change. Pondering for a moment if he should berate him more he decided that Janik should be able to figure that out himself, but if that were to happen again he¡¯d be furious.


    Trying to refocus as Janik took his time to slowly recover his health, the fact that Janik couldn¡¯t dodge that meant that both Dia and Sam would most likely be in similar cases. Which made a lot of sense. Sam could cheat with his Psyhands but that would stop him from using them both defensively or offensively. And he had a powerful offence, so...


    Even without testing, he felt confident that he was going to be fine that way. Taking the basis of the two monsters they had seen so far, the worst target to instantly kill was the crab. It was a bit odd that both of them had the same Defence rating, but that was a discussion for a later time. 100 Defence and the Crab had 945 health. None of them had any elemental resistance, not even for fire, but as they were the two first things they had met it might make sense. But even with the 100 defence, he could often take them out in one volley.


    Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    When elemental resistance kicks in he might have to forgo his Invisibility, or just use that for what it¡¯s worth and go for a second volley. In either case, he was fine.


    As he was looking at the numbers, he noticed that the Ascendant bonus thing had triggered again, this time on all of them, Janik included. Telling them it was agreed that due to the extra damage to things, it might be smarter to stack Vitality at the moment. So this became the target for both of them, Sam put his in Spirit like normal.


    ¡°Do we think that¡¯s enough testing?¡± Sam asked the group, mainly directing it at Janik.


    ¡°I think so unless you want your girl to have a go.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m good,¡± Sam replied. Though he wanted her to have the best chance of things, seeing someone as adept at fighting as Janik take a hit like that, it only takes one critical hit to blow them up... The scaling of the Tower is bullshit.


    ¡°Ok, in that case, I think we can head to the first Dungeon, get a taste of that and do the routine, I guess.¡± Janik sounded both excited but also bored, something Sam understood.


    Though the first round would most likely be a group effort, just to be sure that things went well, it would be up to Sam to run it again and again until they felt confident for the next one. Which would have the whole process repeat.


    They were falling into a habit.


    ¡°I suppose...¡± Sam replied, he agreed but it felt a bit... boring and exciting at the same time, however, the boring overshadowed it a little. This was just the same thing in a new environment. He was looking forward to the Fourth floor.


    [ Experience gained: +50. ]


    ¡°Err... Sam? Did you just get 50 experience?¡± Janik asked as Sam was finalizing his stat point.


    ¡°I did...¡± Sam replied with confusion in his voice.


    He took a moment to check the logs to find out where it came from and found the entry listing that Elara had killed a rabbit. Knowing that when Janik solo-kills something there is no proper mention in the logs where the XP comes from, just that it¡¯s shared.


    ¡°Oh! It seems that Elara is having fun,¡± Sam explained after discovering it. Finding it strangely amusing and satisfying that she was doing things on her own.


    ¡°Ah, that explains it,¡± Janik replied with a strange relieved sigh in his voice.


    Sam understood his hesitation, though it only sounds positive getting seemingly free XP, not knowing the source can be oddly worrying as you might be in or around something, or about to be in a heap of trouble.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go and see what she¡¯s doing,¡± Sam smiled behind his mask as he started surfacing.


    The group followed as Sam swam upwards. Breaking the surface they found that they had drifted, or rather swam, further out than expected. Not a problem since breathing wasn¡¯t an issue, but it did take a few minutes to get back to the beach.


    Though they were back in the air and out of the water, they were thoroughly drenched. The temperature of the water and on the beach was fine, so it wasn¡¯t uncomfortable that way, but it was very much so being just 100% soaked.


    Sam wanted to check the market for some drying powers, just anything... It would also help Dia when they bathe or shower normally as... it takes a while to get her dry. But being literally in another world made that a bit odd. Checking cached data wasn¡¯t exactly fun either as he might try to buy something no longer available, or new things might be there so... it¡¯s just better to check when they return.


    Getting closer to the tree line, Sam called out for Elara, her voice wasn¡¯t super powerful so it took a moment to find her. She was coiled up near a dead brown-furred rabbit. It had two puncture marks on its thigh but looked surprisingly fine besides that, not counting its horrified and bloodshot eyes...


    Elara had a massive smile, looking satisfied with the tip of her tail wagging she explained as soon as they came into conversation distance.


    ¡°I hunted, it was exciting!¡± A simple statement but something she had on several occasions stated that she wanted to do.


    Sam was happy for her and reached down his hand to let her slither on board once she raised herself suggesting she wanted that. However, now Sam had yet another critter to take care of.


    ¡°Is... that safe to eat?¡± Sam asked, pointing at the rabbit that died from injected venom.


    ¡°Yes,¡± Elara nodded as she perched herself on Sam¡¯s shoulders. ¡°I have tested with the lower-power Venom and, I can control it to a surprising level.¡±


    ¡°Oh? What do you mean? Like turn it off or something?¡±


    ¡°Yes, if I want to I can open a window and see any venom used, even the ones on your toothpicks. I can disable them if I want to, I can also see what is affected by the Venom right now. As the rabbit died, it disappeared from the list so it¡¯s fine now.¡± She sounded proud of having found out this information.


    Sam felt a bit sorry for the poor rabbit that according to the Appraisal had 15 health and probably suffered a bit with Elara¡¯s 1-dmg-per-tick Venom for her to learn this. However, it was very, very good info. When she started selling it, she could have at least a tiny bit of control over things.


    Inspecting her at the same time he saw that she also had a +1 point to be added as part of the Ascendant bonus, she wanted it into Vitality. He could also see that she had used two Venom doses and that it seemed her Venom-per-day count was a total pool, not per rank. So if she had 10 uses, using 1x Venom 1 and 1x Venom 2 used two charges in total. She didn¡¯t have 10 for Rank 1, 10 for Rank 2, and so on.


    ¡°That¡¯s very good to know,¡± Sam replied after thinking about the details. ¡°I suppose you can deactivate right away if you ever see our names on the target list, then.¡± Smiling a little at his joke, as he hardly thought he had to explain that to her, he also didn¡¯t intend to be on the target side of it but, you never knew.


    Since the rabbit was safe, he stored it in his Item Box, it could become a meal or something later when they chose to camp out somewhere. If today was going to be a grind, then it would probably be needed. The Player Stamina helped tons for day-long grinds but as these Dungeons would be at least mostly underwater, the extra energy spent would make it much more of a hassle.


    ¡°Well,¡± Sam started as he looked towards Janik. ¡°Where¡¯s the first Dungeon? Might as well take advantage of the fact that we¡¯re already drenched before we dry up.¡±


    Janik nodded as he took out his phone and checked a few things.


    Having to move to another side of the jungle, they passively dried up a surprising amount. Dia wanted to clean her fur multiple times but Sam mentioned an equal amount of times that it would be somewhat wasted effort as they were going back in the water as soon as they got there. Dia seemed to struggle internally with this and reminded Sam that her fur is important.


    Sam didn¡¯t have a counter to that, but they chose not to stop until they had trekked across half the main island and were standing in front of a pool of water connecting to a small stream. The vague portal into the Dungeon was horizontal and seemingly connected to the calm water.


    ¡°So, we go in, and just do it like a normal party the first round? Should I just remain invisible or...?¡± Sam wanted to double-check things in case combat happened right away.


    This hadn''t been a thing so far, but you never knew.


    ¡°Hmm,¡± Janik started as he scrolled through the Guide app. ¡°Based on what I see here, this should be a relatively normal and simple Dungeon... considering its underwater nature. Since you¡¯re going to be grinding it, I think it¡¯s probably easier if you just do as you want and we¡¯ll stay a little in the back, in case there is something for us to do.¡±


    ¡°So, potential backup, probably not a bad idea;¡± Sam confirmed.


    ¡°Dia fight?¡± Dia asked afterwards, wanting to make sure she understood it. Her English was pretty good for the short time she had worked on it, but she wasn¡¯t perfect.


    ¡°Stay with Janik, but if I get hit or are in danger, then you fight,¡± Sam confirmed in simpler terms.


    She nodded with an excited expression.


    Fumbling and finding Elara¡¯s head, he motioned for her to come into view. ¡°I suppose you can linger around here, then.¡± He didn¡¯t have any breathing apparatus for her, and though she could probably swim and hold her breath very well, snakes often could, he didn¡¯t know just how long they were going to be underwater at a time.


    Elara simply nodded and slithered into a nearby tree as the group put on their masks, topping them off with a shared Aether crystal that Janik had with him.


    ¡°Well, let¡¯s go!¡± Janik excitedly exclaimed as they headed for the portal.

 Ch.089 - The First Water Dungeon

    As the warm white light faded, they found themselves standing in a cave, not underwater as Sam half-expected. That said, the only direct way out of here was a single hallway leading into the water, which was to be expected. It was strangely illuminated by what looked like glowing crystals stuck in the walls.


    Taking a few steps towards the water the familiar window popped up.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Murkwhale: 0/1


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters: 0/20


    Rewards:


    100 000 000 xp


    1x Random crafting material


    Chance (2%): Low D-tier weapon or armour -or- another item.


    Bonus rewards for optional step:


    100 000 000 xp


    Random Box - X. ]


    Sam immediately reacted to the XP levels. 100 million was absurd, or rather, it was absurd at the moment. Considering that they should be at around level 40 at this point they would need somewhere around 2 trillion XP... So it would still take thousands of these to level up...


    Who the fuck designed this shit. Sam wasn¡¯t surprised to realize that it felt like the System was designed to nudge Players to go in under levelled because they needed that inflated XP rather than grinding the same dungeons for hundreds if not thousands of times... He also already knew the answer which didn¡¯t aid his distaste for things.


    ¡°Though I like the XP numbers now, it puts some perspective on later levels and how sucky it¡¯s going to be to level up...¡± Sam commented with a drawn-out sigh.


    ¡°It¡¯s good you can do that hax-thing, then. That¡¯s with a level per round, right?¡± Janik countered with a good point.


    Sam had to agree. Since each level-up only gave you one point, each Ascendant boost gave you a free level without the penalty of needing double XP for the next one. If he could just figure out the triggers for them. But this did mean that 10 points were 10 free levels, so... in a way they were already cheating quite a lot.


    Deciding to take some frustration on some dungeon mobs, they continued into the water. Luckily enough it was still temperate and didn¡¯t feel uncomfortable, it would have been much worse if it was freezing or boiling, but Sam decided to not think too much about this lest he give the System ideas.


    The first monster was a singular Reefclaw, the giant crab was eating something it had found on the cave floor which gave Sam a moment to open with a volley as soon as he swam in range. It had the same statistics as the one Janik fought, not having any Elemental resistance.


    The damage from Sam¡¯s full volley, even with 100 Defence, took it out instantly.


    [ Experience gained: +7 500 000. ]


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Murkwhale: 0/1


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters: 1/20 ]


    This was a good jump for the level they were at. Realistically this would be a group fight to get done fast enough to not take much damage. A solid Tank keeping its focus with damage mitigation skills on top of a good Defence would make this better, but... they didn¡¯t have that unless you counted Janik¡¯s very focused Active Defence. Alternatively, Sam could use his Active Defence and defend surprisingly well, but that wouldn¡¯t do wonders for his damage output. In a pinch, he could go full-defensive mode and have the others attack, so there was a backup if nothing else.


    They continued through the Dungeon, and it was just more of the same. Reefclaws and some Skewerfish. They made for a horrifying combo when they met them both, however, the lack of elemental resistance and Static Charge meant that splitting up the weapons didn¡¯t cause any major problems, and a single split volley took out both of them. Their focus on the group in addition to a head-on charge made them very easy to hit.


    Though swimming made everything take much, much more time than if they had walked to run through this place, since they had plenty of time they didn¡¯t need to stress and wear themselves out. Having a theoretically unlimited amount of underwater breathing also helped on the mental side of things.


    This process continued as they went through the whole dungeon, save a few close calls where Sam had to either split up the weapons between multiple targets enough that it wasn¡¯t enough to instantly get everyone, or where he opted to take out single targets before going to the others, they got to the Boss room without problems and any damage. It was a linear dungeon so they got every kill without problems, netting up a substantial sum of XP and Cores.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Murkwhale: 0/1


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters: 20/20 ]


    They had all levelled at this point, Sam put his point in Spirit like he always did, Dia wanted her in Dex, and Janik put his in Dex as well. On top of this, Dia hit level 20 and unlocked a new skill!


    [ Foxfire strikes: For the next 4 attacks, the user deals an extra 20 Fire damage per hit


    - Cooldown: 5 minutes.


    - Number of attacks: Dex / 4.


    - Damage: Dex. ]


    Dia was ecstatic, commenting that she could now ¡®punch fire¡¯, something both Sam and Janik found amusing, her almost childlike excitement was hard to ignore. That said, she wasn¡¯t able to test it on the way to the boss room on the account that Sam handled everything before it became a big problem.


    Sam also didn¡¯t want her to fight these things, they hit surprisingly hard, and her Defence of 60 only helped so far. He wanted her to get the same combo of Defence and Counter that Janik had, perhaps he¡¯d ask Janik to teach her Active Defence later, it might be easier for him to do it than Sam due to their combat styles.


    Being as ready as they could, it was time to brave the boss, the Murkwhale. Like many Dungeons before, the little nook that led into the room had an entry portal stopping Players from taking cheap shots. They entered the area of the portal and accepted.


    As the white light once again faded, they found themselves in a large underwater cave, it was the size of a shopping mall, with more than enough room for a large whale to swim around in. Though it was decently well illuminated by the same crystals as the rest of the Dungeon, due to the distance and amount of water things became blurry fast.


    A high-pitch whale vocalization echoed through them, the water making it hard to estimate where it came from. Sam looked around and eventually spotted a shadow in the distance, a shadow that came towards them at great speed.


    The whale-like beast had jagged teeth, dark and almost scale-like armoured skin, and a glowing bioluminescent pattern across most of its body.


    [ Murkwhale


    Level: 46


    STR: 22


    DEX: 4


    VIT: 30


    SPT: 0


    HP: 1120 / 1120


    Damage: Crushing Bite 128, Deep Roar 160, Tail Smash 128.


    Defence: 150, Elemental Resistance.


    Abilities: HP boon, Crushing bite, Deep Roar, Tail Smash, Elemental Resistance. ]


    [ Crushing bite: A powerful bite that holds onto prey for several bites unless the target gets loose ]


    [ Deep Roar: A powerful underwater sound attack that ignores Defense. ]


    [ Tail Smash: A powerful tail swipe that creates underwater currents to damage and send targets flying. Secondary damage from hitting things is possible. ]


    [ Elemental Resistance; Takes 50% damage from elemental damage. ]


    Sam wanted to make sure this didn¡¯t get a chance to do anything, moving his Aura Points away from the HP barrier, he assigned the points to Aura Damage boost and placed it on the Void Fang. The circular weapon and its dangerous-looking teeth were covered in a weak, but perceptible red field as the information on the weapon updated with +72% damage.


    Taking his time to aim, making sure he hit with everything, though on a target this large that wasn¡¯t a problem, but he wanted to make sure he hit well, not just hitting it at all.


    Several weapons landed a critical hit, of them the Void Fang was one, doubling its already inflated damage. The Void Fang also triggered its 30% penetration by doing an extra 72 damage by ignoring Defence. Static Charge built up and triggered, and though it had Elemental resistance it all stacked up.


    The total damage, after Defence and resistance, totalled up to 1682. The Whale had no chance and didn¡¯t even get a single attack on the group. As soon as it came within range it died in an explosion of gore slowly floating around in the water.


    ¡°Well... That was anticlimactic...¡± Janik stated through their communication.


    Sam was fine with this being anticlimactic, anticlimactic in this context meant safe.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Murkwhale: 1/1


    Optional: Kill all monsters


    Monsters: 20/20


    Rewards:


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    60 000 000 xp


    1x Random crafting material


    Bonus rewards for optional step:


    60 000 000 xp


    Random Box - X. ]


    The System slammed them both with 120 million XP each, on top of the 30 million split between them from the Whale. So each ended up with 135 million XP in this burst of a moment. All of them levelled up again, placing their Skill points as they wanted. Yet another point in Spirit for Sam which put the score back to an even number and thus another Energy, which in turn gave him two more Psyhands.


    The exponential increase in damage was always fun.


    The Random boxes were less interesting, Sam got two Aether Crystals for a total of three with the reward, and Janik got three for a total of Four.


    At least they had a bunch of Cores.


    Swimming to the exit portal in the centre of this massive room took a while, but during that moment Sam decided to test something. Though his Psyhands couldn¡¯t lift him, in the water he was somewhat weightless. Though momentum was always a thing he could now use his Psyhands to exert a bit over 58 kg/128 lbs of force. Grabbing hold of himself he could pull and push himself forwards, giving him a surprising level of mobility in the water. This seemed like a good dodge mechanic if he could spare the hands, and frankly; for survival, you should always spare what you need.


    Since he could manifest and despawn his Psyhands functionally instantly within his Area, this opened up a lot of new movement. It wasn¡¯t perfect, naturally, but it was more than enough to take him up to great speeds compared to his swimming. Surpassing his swim speed with what felt like twice as fast, without any of the hassle. Surpassing both Janik and Dia who were better at swimming than him. If he aided with some movements and swimming it seemed to help a little, but it was better to just Psyhand-pull himself forward.


    He was using this when he had to grind these places.


    Finally coming to the portal, Sam exited with Dia like normal which had them land on the grass near the portal outside. Janik appeared only a few seconds after them, seemingly having used the Emergency Exit method.


    [ Companion Elara, level up! ]


    Elara had levelled up but didn¡¯t get the XP before Sam exited, they had to be in the same... world, or something. However, she had only levelled once, which wasn¡¯t too weird as she only got half of the XP.


    Sam put her point in Vitality, as she wanted everything in that for now.


    ¡°Cheater,¡± Janik commented with a sly smile as he took his mask off. ¡°Though that¡¯s probably going to make the grind easier.¡±


    Sam nodded. ¡°I agree, still more annoying than walking or running, but at least it takes most of the hassle out of it.¡±


    ¡°Zar, Dia clean fur now?¡± Dia asked Sam. She seemed to almost look annoyed as she did so, her tone halfway sour.


    ¡°I suppose?¡± Sam commented with an uncertain tone. ¡°If I¡¯m going to run these on my own, you¡¯ll enter in the dry area, and come back out here when we leave, so yeah; I think that¡¯s fine.¡± His tone changed to a more certain tone during his resonating, as he realised that she shouldn¡¯t need to get into the water as they proceeded the grind.


    As they talked, Elara came slithering out from the tree line, Sam briefly considered sending her back or having her waste time. Instead, he had another idea.


    ¡°Before we start this grind, how¡¯s about we have some food, I¡¯m starving after all that swimming and... this is going to be a long day.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, sure, I don¡¯t see a problem with that,¡± Janik replied, taking off his soaked backpack, pouring out the water in it and fishing out some cooking utensils.


    ¡°I have rabbit and rat,¡± Sam smiled at Janik, intending to let him pick. However, as soon as he mentioned that he could feel some heavy and excited eyes from a certain vulpine companion. Briefly considering it, there wasn¡¯t a real choice. If he didn¡¯t go with the rat he feared that this would make the situation... bad.


    ¡°On second thought, let¡¯s go for the rat...¡± Sam confirmed without letting Janik choose, taking it out of the Item Box.


    Janik opened his mouth to comment but Sam could see that he noticed Dia and understood the situation. ¡°I don¡¯t know how to prepare rat, though... I don¡¯t have that much skinning knowledge.¡±


    ¡°Dia knows! Dia can prepare!¡± She almost pounced on both Sam and the dead rat. Immediately started to get it ready for cooking.


    Though macabre, it was surprisingly interesting seeing how skilfully she took care of it, removing the skin with almost no effort before she proceeded to gut it and prepare the meat. It made sense, she had been living in a survival scenario her whole life so this wasn¡¯t a new concept to her. Modern advances had the firewood that Sam got from the forest light up without any effort. It felt almost cheating compared to the stuff Sam had to do on the Island, something as simple as a gas lighter was just too good.


    Janik had some kindling in a waterproof container in his backpack, making the process even easier, it didn¡¯t take many minutes before they had a proper fire going, which Dia used to prepare the rat. She had taken the meat off the bones and impaled them on sticks, simple enough. They were close to the ocean so as they were working on the fire she seemed like she had a great idea and darted towards it, coming back with some salt packed up in a large leaf she folded to make a simple container.


    Sam could see that Janik put his little container of spices away, he didn¡¯t want to ruin this for her.


    Throughout this whole ordeal, Elara simply lounged in the area, moving up to soak the heat from the fire as it was lit up, she didn¡¯t seem to have a vote in the food nor anything to aid with, opting for the lazy and comfortable.


    It didn¡¯t take long for the food to be done, it was a simple salted rat. Janik reached in for some food first but Sam could see his movement suddenly stop, a glance at Dia explained why. She looked at him with eyes hinting that she might or might not make a problem out of this if he dared take the first piece. Janik pulled his hand back.


    Instead, Dia took the first piece and handed it to Sam with a happy, ¡°Zar nar!¡±


    Sam knew that Nar meant the value 1, it was also used to signal anything of the sort so in this context it was probably ¡®First¡¯. Which made sense in her view. Her grammarless language was oddly simple but weird.


    Taking the piece, Sam took a bite. He had eaten worse things before, this was at least hunted and prepared by Dia, so he felt much safer than the other things he had eaten in necessary times. It was salted meat, a small rodent so a bit gamey but it wasn¡¯t bad.


    ¡°It¡¯s good,¡± Sam forced himself to say, he couldn¡¯t say ¡®not bad¡¯ or comment about it being less than good. In Dia¡¯s defence, he was comparing this to a proper steak cooked by modern chefs, comparing this to other meat it was honestly good.


    Dia¡¯s face lit up, looking extremely content she sat down properly and picked the next piece for herself, pulling a small piece of it that she handed to Elara. Janik was then allowed to pick a piece.


    ¡°Interesting hierarchy, I¡¯m lower than the snake,¡± Janik joked.


    ¡°I have no proper understanding of that part of her culture, but if I¡¯m to guess... Dia is with me, and Elara is also bound to me, though a friend you¡¯re not bound in the same way so...¡± Sam looked towards Dia for confirmation.


    She nodded. ¡°Zar important, top. Dia second, Sa zar. Elara nor, or zennor, Dia not understand, but important. Janik friend, important, but lower.¡± She explained, using a few words that didn¡¯t help Janik much.


    Luckily for Janik, Sam understood the words.


    ¡°Both Nor and Zennor mean bond, but Zennor is a closer emotional, heavier bond. Dia doesn¡¯t understand the Companion thing but she gets that she¡¯s bound to me, thus important.¡±


    ¡°Ah, yeah. That makes sense in context, just wasn¡¯t sure about the words. But I suppose that makes sense, it just feels weird being at the bottom, you know?¡± Janik looked down into the fore. It was clear that he knew it wasn¡¯t really important but at the same time, it seemed to affect him slightly.


    ¡°Oh, we all know you¡¯re a bottom,¡± Sam grinned back at him with a dumb, dirty joke.


    ¡°You fucker, that¡¯s a good one. I¡¯ll let you have this one,¡± he smiled properly in response, seeming to have snapped out of it.


    Their small talk and shade-throwing came to an end shortly thereafter, Sam had to start today¡¯s grind. He both liked and disliked this part, it was fun seeing how overpowered he kind of was, but the repetitive nature was both boring and dangerous.


    Deciding to just get started, they popped back in for another round. They took about two hours to swim through the whole thing, all the rooms and whatnot, but with the swim boost it should be a bit faster.


    The white light deposited them in the same land-cave location as before.


    ¡°I have an idea,¡± Sam commented before getting started. ¡°Since you¡¯re just sitting here, do you mind teaching Dia the Active Defence skill?¡±


    ¡°Oh, yeah, absolutely. I can do that,¡± Janik agreed to it instantly, looking surprisingly happy about it.


    Janik had a very helpful personality, and given the number of times he has taken advantage of Sam¡¯s grinding ability, he might have seen this as a way to repay some of that.


    ¡°That¡¯s good to hear,¡± Sam smiled back, it was surprisingly good to consider this. ¡°Also, if you see the counterattack skill you got, I would like that for her as well. Just buy it and let me know. I¡¯ll repay it afterwards.¡±


    Sam wanted that mix for Dia since she could combine punches, kicks, claws and bites she might be very skilled at this kind of fighting style. If the timing was bad and they somehow ended up with two instances of the skill, that was not a problem and he¡¯d just learn it as well, no reason to not know this if the chance came.


    ¡°Yeah, no problem,¡± Janik smiled back as he made a shooing motion towards the water. ¡°Now get:¡±


    Sam wanted to reply with some snide remark, but he wasn¡¯t able to think of something, on top of this he was going to teach Dia so...


    Letting out a drawn-out sigh instead, Sam headed for the hallway into the water.

 Ch.090 - An expected surprise

    The second run of the Dungeon was much faster than the first. The fact that he didn¡¯t have to swim everywhere made things much easier. Having Invisibility active also meant that the pulling force was somewhat diminished. This didn¡¯t mean that he¡¯d stop in the water, just be a bit slower. It also didn¡¯t mean he was indivisible but it seemed that an incoming ¡®bubble¡¯ was less suspicious than a person so he got a moment to get in range before disabling the Invisibility to manifest his full swarm.


    This method worked surprisingly well. Though the aquatic creatures were highly attuned to their environment, it ended up surprisingly straightforward nonetheless.


    The second run took a bit less time than the first since he had to dig out the cores himself, however, it still took about an hour and a half per run.


    He started the grind at around 2 in the afternoon, and though they didn¡¯t have any form of predetermined bedtime, he still got tired when the evening came in. Especially after the runs became a grind.


    Almost getting hit a few times was the closest anything came to hurting him, luckily enough. His method still worked well underwater, and going invisible before pulling himself sideways worked better than it felt like it should have.


    Sam decided to call it after six runs. It had taken long enough, and he was tired. Due to the linear nature of this Dungeon, he always got every monster and always got the bonus, so he ended up with full rewards per run.


    Sadly, this didn¡¯t end up with any neat loot. All Random Boxes only contained crafting materials, including the ones for completing the Dungeon Sam ended up with 16 crystals, and Janik ended up with 18.


    However, between kills and Dungeon Completion rewards, they each ended up with their share of XP, totalling 1.1 billion per person.


    This gave all of them two level-ups, except Elara who got three. Sam put his points in Spirit, Janik put both in Dex, Dia spread her two between Vit and Dex, and Elara wanted everything in Vit.


    For Sam, this meant that not only did his Energy increase, but it also went over a threshold and gave him another Aura Point for a total of 25.


    [ Sam XP to lv.29: 139 477 588 / 1 342 177 280 ¨€????????? ]


    [ Elara XP to lv.28: 46 202 792 / 671 088 640 ¨€????????? ]


    [ Dia XP to lv.24: 74 818 / 74 818 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€ ]


    [ Janik XP to lv.29: 110 224 450 / 1 342 177 280 ¨€????????? ]


    Dia instantly capped to the next level as she needed so little XP. Sam was a bit miffed at the limit, as it would be interesting to see how much she¡¯d sail past them at her faster progression, but that¡¯s without a doubt why the cap was there at all. Checking her info also showed that she had not unlocked the Active Defence yet, it might not be too easy to learn that for her, but they had time so it didn¡¯t matter yet.


    ¡°I think that¡¯s it for me today,¡± Sam confirmed as he stretched, feeling worn out from the underwater activities.


    ¡°What? Only two levels?¡± Janik started as a joke, but before Sam could react he continued. ¡°But seriously, this is amazing progress, we¡¯re nearing level 30, and I¡¯m excited to see what we¡¯ll get. But... All the XP we got today, giving us two levels, is now barely going to give us one more. I hate this exponential thing.¡± Janik let out a drawn-out sigh at the end, and Sam had to agree.


    Sam would have enjoyed it if the Ascendant thing had given them more points, but today¡¯s grind didn¡¯t trigger anything.


    Instead of biting into Janik¡¯s joke, he started heading back to the portal and out of this place, changing the topic slightly.


    ¡°What about going to the mid-level Dungeon like we did the others? Or is there a better one for our grinding like the Fortress one on the Second Floor?¡±


    Janik took out his phone as Sam asked. ¡°Let me check.¡±


    The walk back was silent for a short while. Dia, who normally walked as close to Sam as she could, had given him an entire step of distance as he was still soaked. Elara had opted to ride with Dia and the warm fur rather than her cold and drenched master. Sam felt like he wanted some drying spells for this Floor.


    ¡°Well, it seems there is a good farming Dungeon, it¡¯ll go insanely fast but... is dangerous as fuck,¡± Janik didn¡¯t look too happy as he continued explaining. ¡°It¡¯s one where you are just dropped into one large pool, much like the boss room of the first Dungeon, and everything attacks at the same time. The number of monsters in there changes from run to run, but it seems that it¡¯s all from only a few crabs or fish, up to 20 of them. Some runs might even have Tidecallers or if you¡¯re unlucky, a Leviathan Eel.¡±


    Janik looked at Sam, who seemed surprisingly on board with the idea, and continued before Sam had a chance to say anything: ¡°There is no land in there. You¡¯ve just been dumped into the pool, and you can¡¯t use the Emergency Exit.¡±


    ¡°Ah... that¡¯s the catch... makes sense. Then no, not going to risk it at all.¡± Sam was on board and wanted to give it a go, but as soon as there was no way out, no matter how perfect it might be they could be super dead easily. He also preferred to not go into stuff like this without an exit, he had enough of that from the Solo Dungeons. Sam would love an XP chunk or better farming opportunity, but he also wanted to survive the ordeal.


    ¡°Good,¡± Janik replied, looking satisfied that Sam chose that answer. ¡°In that case, most of them somewhat follow the same logic. All of them are underwater, some have some overwater caves but not enough to matter. They are somewhat similar but the XP and damage increases through them.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the difference?¡± Sam questioned.


    ¡°There aren¡¯t exact numbers, but the starter dungeon does around 140-250 or so, giving around 15 million XP. The mid-dungeon gives 35-40 million XP a pop but has high 200s as a norm and a few 300s damage range,¡± Janik replied as his expression soured as it went on.


    ¡°Ah... fuck... that¡¯s a bit harsh...¡± Sam considered his Defence of 55, if something did 300 damage he would have 55 HP left, and that was if nothing landed a critical hit or anything else hit at the same time. He could focus more on Active Defence and use that more, but it was still risky.


    ¡°We could also keep farming the lower-ranked Dungeons on this floor for a while, If nothing else it¡¯s at least steady and safe progress.¡± Janik smiled as he put his phone back in his pocket.


    ¡°I suppose,¡± Sam replied, not looking entirely happy about it. The speed they improved today was good, but it would get exponentially slower as time went on. He already knew how the progression system of the Tower System was stacked against the Players, making it interesting and rewarding biting over larger and more dangerous challenges for a faster progression but... That still came with the bonus danger.


    He had thought this thought several times now, but he felt the need to re-think it to remind himself to not bite into more than he could handle. They¡¯d grind the starting Dungeon tomorrow and see how far that gets them, then make a plan from there.


    Returning to Earth they split up for the night and agreed to meet up in the TAC mess hall the next morning for breakfast. Elara went with Janik, Dia and Sam to get a room at TAC.


    Sam checked the Marketplace for something good within his current budget, after selling all but one of the Crystals from today¡¯s rewards his current total budget was just a little over 2 million. There weren¡¯t any good skills nor any weapons that he felt like paying for at the moment, so the money was banked until the morning for another check.


    Dia tried to argue herself out of a proper shower with the fact that she had already handled it, there was still evidence of saltwater in her fur so both of them needed to get this out before they went to bed.


    The next morning he got to see Dia¡¯s reaction to waking to an alarm clock, which was surprisingly mundane, though he was glad that it didn¡¯t startle her or something, parts of him sort of wanted to see that moment.


    Going through their morning routine had them meet up in the mess hall shortly thereafter. Elara was surprisingly excited and seemingly had problems staying still, she slithered back and forth in a strangely adorable way, looking about eagerly.


    As soon as they were done eating, Sam decided to not torture her more than needed, he got up and let her climb onboard, heading for the market area which was well-marked with signs and arrows on the floor.


    They entered a large room with multiple stands and tables. A myriad of people were sitting there selling their crafted or just-obtained items. The bonus of doing it this way was that you could get a higher price for yourself, as TAC only charged a 10% fee for sitting there, rather than marking up and earning 5x what they paid you. The downside was that you had to spend your time here or have someone do it for you. The convenience of the ¡®money right away¡¯ path made it much easier, and profitable for TAC, to just sell things over the counter.


    This made Sam wonder if this was a better idea for whatever he got in the future, however, based on his own shopping experience it¡¯s just much more practical to use the TAC market instead of this.


    The problem if Elara were to sell her Venom on the marketplace is that it would be harder to apply to things, and they would be pre-applied to things like toothpicks or they had to get a bunch of vials. Besides, she wanted to do this so Sam didn¡¯t feel like discussing it.


    Walking over to a manager just inside the main doors, they were told where to set up. Elara just needed a small enough table to perch on and the needed payment thing set up. She was protected in here and it wasn¡¯t exactly like someone could steal her stuff. And she was plenty smart enough to handle the tablets needed to take payment, so all in all, this was a pretty decent deal for her.


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    The manager registered them and someone helped them set up everything, though they seemed to have some odd expressions taking requests from a snake, they did as told and in only a few minutes, Elara was set up.


    She looked very happy when she coiled up on a little pillow that one of the aides came with, writing something on the tablet she had set up a screen behind her displayed ¡®Venom¡¯ as a title, with a subtitle explaining that she¡¯ll envenom any weapon or item.


    ¡°So... how does this work, should we stay... help... do something?¡± Sam asked with a confused tone. He wanted to help somehow if he could.


    ¡°No, I can do this,¡± she smiled back. ¡°You go do what you need to, I¡¯ll be here when you get back.¡± The tip of her tail was wagging and she was smiling widely as she said he could leave.


    Sam couldn¡¯t do anything but smile. ¡°Ok, we¡¯ll leave you to it. Have fun.¡± He gave her a little wave as they left. Though he wondered how she would do, he hoped that she wouldn¡¯t be disappointed if she didn¡¯t get anyone the first day.


    That said, the fact that a snake sat there, talking to people, would probably work as some form of advertising on its own.


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s adorable,¡± Janik smiled as they left her to her thing. ¡°She was talking to Grace about this a lot yesterday, it seems she was looking forward to it.¡±


    ¡°I could tell,¡± Sam chuckled in response.¡±She couldn¡¯t sit still when we ate.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll do fine, as long as she doesn¡¯t set her prices too high and gets at least one sale, I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll be happy,¡± Janik nodded sagely as they headed for the Tower.


    ¡°Though, that said...¡± Janik continued as they were leaving the TAC building. ¡°I have been thinking and... I¡¯m getting much, much more out of this deal than you are, I mean... I¡¯m practically set up for life if I live frugally, with all of my kids. So I have decided that all rewards and loot that I get should go to you.¡±


    Sam raised an eyebrow. ¡°Isn¡¯t that a bit much?¡±


    ¡°No, not really. You¡¯d do just as well without me, I leech half of the XP and get free loot...¡± He sounded somewhat guilty when talking.


    ¡°What if there¡¯s something you need or want there, then?¡± Sam challenged the idea, he wasn¡¯t against it but it felt sudden and kind of weird.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s not a problem,¡± Janik replied with a wide smile. ¡°You gave me things before, I¡¯m half-counting and hoping for something like that to happen again if there¡¯s something you don¡¯t intend to use.¡±


    Musing to himself, Sam concluded that this wasn¡¯t a bad idea. He wanted to bring Janik, even though it was faster to go alone for the sake of XP, at some point he was going to need teammates. Donating gear to Janik was nothing new, he had done it before and he saw no need to not keep doing that. He even said so earlier so Janik banking on that now was just relying on what Sam had explained.


    In a roundabout way, this somewhat meant that Sam had double the chance of getting loot from various sources like Dungeon Clearing and the Random Boxes. It would also help with his need for weapons, given that he currently had 58 hands if you counted his fleshy ones.


    ¡°That¡¯s fine, if you¡¯re OK with it I¡¯m fine with that deal,¡± Sam agreed with a nod.


    The simple agreement seemed to lift a weight off Janik¡¯s shoulders. Sam wondered how long he had been thinking about this. Given his personality, it could have been some time, but he might have been worrying about being left behind.


    Dia didn¡¯t seem to understand what was going on properly, or was just not paying attention, she tilted her head a little at their expressions but didn¡¯t interject.


    They entered the area of the Tower during their talk, triggering the transportation they found themselves on the Third Floor right after. It didn¡¯t take too long to get to the Dungeon entrance, and just like that; today¡¯s grind started.


    Like before, they went in, Dia and Janik waited while Sam did his thing. He was already bored at this but it was the only way to get where he wanted. If possible he¡¯d love to rush through things, perhaps it could be worth just paying someone to get them through the End Dungeon so they could go to the next Floor, but that would perhaps make the first Dungeon there... dangerous. Sadly, doing it this way was a good idea, and now and then letting Dia and Janik do things changed up the monotony a bit.


    The day went like this, 10 rounds was all Sam could bear before it became too much. Each run netted Sam a total of 350 million XP, 21 Cores if you counted the boss, as well as two crystals and two Random Boxes if you counted Janik¡¯s side of things. XP was still set at 50% so the other half would go to Janik, or it would just be like leaving him behind and abusing him for loot.


    Sam opened all the Random Boxes as they were available, which netted them... Or rather, netted him a bunch of stuff. With the completion rewards, there was a total list of 51 Crystals, 2 Health Potions, one weapon and two pieces of Armour. On top of this, they all levelled up, Dia again hitting max XP to be blocked by the limiter.


    The weapon was a Glaive featuring a long pole of leather-wrapped iron, with a metal band spiraling around the whole length. Its blade was made of jagged shards of translucent crystal fastened to a metal spiral shape, shimmering faintly. The spike spiral covered a disc-like area like a circular blade.


    [ Shardspike Glaive, High-End C-rank


    Damage: 280


    Blazing Surge: 30% chance to ignite enemies on hit.


    Frost Rebound: Reduces incoming ice damage by 30% after landing a strike.


    Whirling Momentum: Increase attack speed after three consecutive hits. ]


    The armours consisted of a chestplate crafted from thick interwoven vines, hardened into a solid piece of wood. Dark green leaves clung to its surface, glistening as though freshly grown. It had tiny thorns along its edges and had an odd damp-earth smell to it. The other piece was a flowing cloak made from a blend of fine silk and enchanted-looking leaves. It was deep forest green and had subtle golden veins running through the fabric.


    [ Thornwave breastplate, High C-rank


    Defence: 80


    Barbed Retribution: Reflects 30% of melee damage back at the attacker.


    Verdant Barrier: Has a 30% chance to sprout temporary defensive thorns when struck.


    Nimble Growth: Boosts movement by 20% in forested environments. ]


    [ Mantle of Verdant Winds, High C-rank


    Defence: 80


    Wind¡¯s Whisper: Increase movement speed by 5%


    Flame Ward: Reduces fire damage taken by 10%


    Ravager¡¯s Grip: Increase grip strength, improving block or parry chance. ]


    ¡°Ok... No... I¡¯m done for today,¡± Sam explained bluntly as they met up outside the Dungeon after the 10th run that day. He had chosen to use the Glaive, though he needed four hands to use it properly, dropping 4x 5-dmg daggers for a Glaive doing almost 300 was a fine trade.


    Sam also didn¡¯t want to swap his current armour, it looked neat and he liked the bonuses to Stealth, but realistically speaking it only helped him marginally. The Chamelion skill was also useless since he had his Invisibility. He had opted for the Thornwave Breastplate instead, the Defence boost alone was worth it. Dia also got an upgrade and he put the Mantle of Verdant Winds on her for protection.


    Janik didn¡¯t get anything, but his armour was already at this level and had a better Trait set, not to mention that the Glaive was not his kind of weapon.


    Dia had also learned the Active Defence skill, something Sam was very happy about.


    ¡°That makes sense,¡± Janik smiled back at Sam¡¯s comment. ¡°We¡¯ve, or rather, you¡¯ve been at it for the whole day.¡±


    ¡°Got some neat stuff, though, but I don¡¯t know how much more I can take of this. The repetition, the same fights, it¡¯s... so boring,¡± Sam sighed, looking exhausted and bored out of his skull at the same time.


    ¡°I mean... we could take a few days off, do something else.¡±


    ¡°I thought about that, but the last time I planned some time off, I was back at it the next day...¡± Sam let out a drawn-out sigh. He wanted to just get this over with and get to the next Floor. Though they had levelled up, that was just one point added, it gave him more carry weight and more other stuff like Health, but not enough to feel confident with the mid-dungeon. The Glaive added to his swarm also changed his base damage output by around 260 base damage, elemental damage came on top of that. It was also a good weapon to place the Aura damage boost on but, he didn¡¯t feel confident going against harder-hitting things still.


    [ Conditions met. ]


    ¡°Ah yeah... Fucking go figure...¡± Sam muttered out in annoyance as he saw the little window he halfway expected around this point.

 Ch.091 - Cavitation

    Sam turned to Dia and Janik, grabbing hold of both of them in the hopes that he didn¡¯t need to go alone this time. Parts of him didn¡¯t want to subject them to this but... other parts of him didn¡¯t want to be alone.


    ¡°I got a message about conditions again,¡± Sam explained, his earlier annoyed nonchalant tone fading rapidly as thoughts of the last Solo Dungeon flashed in his eyes.


    ¡°What, what¡¯s going to happen, is it saying something else?¡± Janik asked in a hurry.


    Dia was panicking, not seeming to gasp about what was going on, but having Sam grab onto her like that only had her grab back.


    ¡°I don¡¯t k-¡± Sam started explaining that he didn¡¯t know what was going to happen, but mid-sentence, he realised that he was breathing water.


    Panicking he started swimming upwards but it didn¡¯t take many seconds for him to simply hit a stone ceiling. Much like the top of the underwater hallways in the Dungeons, there was just water here, no air. Suppressing his body¡¯s attempt to cough with all his might he managed to get the mask pressed against his face. This let him cough and fill the mask with the water his lungs had taken in, but the constant airflow within the mask pressed that out of its valves, letting him cough as much as he wanted as he fastened the mask to his head properly.


    Even though his coughing didn¡¯t seem to be entirely done, just having the mask on, and being able to breathe lowered his stress dramatically. At least enough to look around and confirm that nobody came with him. He was somewhat relieved they didn¡¯t come with him, but other parts of him hated that he was alone in this underwater cave.


    The underwater area he was in felt similar to the Boss room in the first Dungeon, it was illuminated by crystals in the walls, which due to the water between him and the far walls dimmed into darkness. But around him and at a considerable distance, there was at least diffused light.


    ¡°Ah, of course...¡± Sam commented dryly as he saw a shadow barely move in the water far away from him.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Hydra Swarm: 0/1 ]


    ¡°Excusemewhat?¡± Sam blurted out in a single word as he saw the name in the mission. There were no conditions, no list of rewards, no nothing.


    Looking around he started panicking slightly, looking for a way out, a place to hide or... anything. Though this was underwater and not the same as the last dungeon, it had a similar feel to it. But rather than spawning in a creature, there seemed to already be one here. Or rather, since it was a Swarm, a group of creatures.


    He subconsciously started to scratch his arm as he pulled himself to the side towards one of the walls for a sense of security and not being out in the open. Though he handled the insects in the wave dungeon fine in the end it had made its mark in his subconscious. Ending up near a wall there wasn¡¯t much to hide behind or in, he activated the Invisibility skill in case that helped, and now he just needed to wait for the enemy to come close enough.


    And close enough it came.


    As the shadow in the distance came closer it let Sam see more and more details. It was a nightmarish aquatic creature. Dozens of constantly writhing tentacles trailed after a bloated, scaly mass. Fanged maws opened and closed across its surface, emitting guttural growls. Its entire body pulsed unnaturally.


    [ Hydra Swarm


    Level: 10


    STR: 30


    DEX: 40


    VIT: 40


    SPT: 0


    HP: 105 000 / 105 000


    Damage: Tentacle Barrage 90, Crushing Grasp 350, Bizarre Regeneration 300, Whip Flurry 360.


    Defence: 200


    Abilities: HP Boon, STR boon, Dex Boon, Vit Boon, Tentacle Barrage, Crushing Grasp, Bizarre Regeneration, Whip Flurry, Elemental Defence. ]


    [ Tentacle Barrage: Flail a barrage of attacks at a target. ]


    [ Crushing Grasp: Crush a target in your strong grasp. ]


    [ Bizarre Regeneration: Regenerate health every few seconds. ]


    [ Whip Flurry: An AOE attack that attacks indiscriminately around you. ]


    Sam had to focus to not shout out in his mask in anger and surprise. How was this thing level 10? Over a hundred thousand health, a high level of health regeneration and good defences? Just what was this thing? Even with Sam¡¯s broken balance didn¡¯t have anywhere near this damage or survival when he was at level 10.


    The only consolation was that it seemed like it hadn¡¯t seen Sam, he was pressed against the cave wall like a bubble of sorts, so perhaps it, or they, didn¡¯t have the best eyesight. But what should he do?


    He pondered this for a moment as the collection of creatures, who seemed to work like a single entity rather than many individuals, left back into the deeper part of the water. Sam needed to decide on what to do. Though he didn¡¯t have any rush as far as breathable air was considered, he had plenty of Aether Crystals, the problem was in water and food. He was surrounded by water but it was all salt. He had food and water in the Item Box, but it was all in containers or packages that didn¡¯t exactly work well with being underwater. Unless he could find air somewhere, there was nothing he could do.


    Considering options, he wondered if he could use the oxygen-creation function of the mask, but he didn¡¯t understand how it worked properly. It created air inside itself, but it also handled the exhaled CO2 as there were little to no bubbles coming out of it. And when he put it on underwater it purged the water without making a lot of turbulent bubbles, so... They had crafted this thing quite well but it didn¡¯t help him much for this.


    One option could be to inhale in the mask, take it off and exhale, then repeat this a bunch of times until he made enough air for it to form a pocket somewhere. That would be a major hassle but it would at least be doable, he just needed a ceiling-part that was concave enough to keep the bubble. But that was something he could consider later, right now he wasn¡¯t hungry or thirsty, so he could try to find a spot for a camp before he dove into worrying about fighting this thing.


    Pulling himself around this place with his Psyhands, he had great control over his movements. Looking like a collection of bubbles floating around it gave him a decent stealth, at least in his mind. He did this for quite some time, looking for a good place to set up camp or create an air pocket, but even after what he felt like hours of this, he couldn¡¯t find a good spot that was out of the way for the Hydra, since he didn¡¯t want to get an unsolicited visitor to his bubble.


    Having only circled the exterior, he hadn¡¯t gotten a chance to check the central area as that was where the swarm was. But he needed to approach it at some point. Much like the earlier Solo Dungeon, there was no proper place to hide. The only gamble he had was that he could stay hidden with Invisibility and attack it at the same time. Failing that he would just have to fight as much as he could... but that raised a question.


    If he got hurt, could he use potions underwater?


    He could use Vital Recovery, but that required him to be aware of his breath and at least somewhat calm... in combat that was probably not going to happen.


    Before he could take advantage of any testing or try to check out the more central part of the area, the creature seemed to notice something. It suddenly stopped casually swimming around and twitched towards Sam, standing still for a few seconds before barrelling towards him.


    Panic washed over Sam, what did he do? What happened? He didn¡¯t do anything as far as he knew, perhaps it was something else?


    This wishful thinking was quickly shot down as it was heading straight towards Sam.


    [ Telekinetic boost active. Time remaining: 57 / 57 seconds ]


    Pulling himself sideways he used the dramatically increased power of his Psyhands with the boost to get out of the way faster. It barely had him avoid getting crushed between the Hydra and the stone walls of the cave. With incredible strength and dexterity, it turned around and sent several tentacles towards him.


    [ Armour, Defence 80 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ Barbed Retribution: 30% damage was reflected. (3) ]


    [ HP: 295 / 305 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€ ]


    The second, third, fourth and other attacks were still incoming in a barrage of attacks. Sam cut Energy to his Invisibility and manifested his full Swarm, triggering Active Defence his various hands intercepted the incoming attacks with surprise ease. They didn¡¯t do any damage to it but they stopped the tentacles from reaching and hitting Sam.


    He could feel a small smile grow on his lips, he had tested the Active Defence skill in the Wave Dungeon earlier, so he knew how it worked but he had never used it in a real scenario like this. This skill had two weaknesses, one was that you could only parry and deflect as many attacks as you had attacks of your own, this was why Janik could only handle two at once. Sam could handle, with his current swarm of weapons, 43, swapping good weapons for quantity this could go up to 57. The second drawback was that the weapons used to parry with, could not be used to attack with, Sam could overcome this with the same quantity.


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    Using his advantage, he dedicated 20 of his 43 weapons to parry and defend him. As the tentacles came haphazardly flailing towards his body, a controlled attack moved to intercept and redirect the danger, cancelling the attacking force or redirecting it to become harmless.


    Doing it this way cut out half of his weapons, but it didn¡¯t affect the higher damaging ones. As his defending hands were doing their job, Sam sent everything else towards anything he could attack as a single, Clustered Strike.


    Not many crits this time, but it did trigger the Defence penetration of Void Fang, the ignition of the Emberslash blade which was instantly extinguished, and the life drain of the Vampiric Blade.


    [ HP: 301 / 305 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€ ]


    [ Hydra Swarm HP: 103 555 / 105 000 ]


    Since most things had died in one volley, or he hadn¡¯t hurt before, he had forgotten that Void Fang healed him every time he hit something with it, it also applied a stacking damage over time effect. Though Sam considered using one of Elara¡¯s venom toothpicks, the Hydra¡¯s Vitality of 40 would make that wasted.


    Another thing that made this more annoying was Bizarre Regeneration, powerful regenerations made everything worse when the enemy had it.


    [ Hydra Swarm HP: 103 855 / 105 000 ]


    The worst part was that the healing-blocking effect of Void Fang didn¡¯t seem to affect it. The skill on Void Fang rea that it would disable healing effects after hit. Perhaps that¡¯s the bizarre aspect of it?


    Not being able to hide, but being able to parry, put Sam into offence mode. He had to focus as he could only parry the things he knew of, and he was lucky that there was light in here. Blade after blade, Psyhand after Psyhand, made contact with incoming tentacles. Each wave of flesh was met with a wave of weapons, darkening the water between them by the second.


    [ Void Rot has triggered on target: 5 damage.]


    [ Hydra Swarm HP: 102 485 / 105 000 ]


    [ Void Rot has triggered on target: 10 damage.]


    [ Hydra Swarm HP: 101 137 / 105 000 ]


    [ Void Rot has triggered on target: 10 damage.]


    [ Hydra Swarm HP: 101 337 / 105 000 ]


    [ Void Rot has triggered on target: 15 damage.]


    [ Hydra Swarm HP: 99 872 / 105 000 ]


    Attacks landed again and again, Sam continued parrying the best he could and for now, it was working. The healing kicked in and returned a chunk of health, and though it was very satisfying seeing its health under 100 000, he also knew it would be short-lived.


    Though this was repetitive and kind of lacklustre, it was working. Sam was feeling good about his odds with this kind of trade. Though the Hydra healed 300 every few seconds, by that time he had done over 2000 damage in return, even though it had 200 Defence and Elemental resistance.


    Its attack pattern changed dramatically, a few tentacles had coiled together and were sent out as a whip. Sam parried it the best he could but the change of movement caught him off guard. The tentacles coiled around him and squeezed hard.


    [ Armour, Defence 80 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ Barbed Retribution: 30% damage was reflected. (30) ]


    [ HP: 35 / 305 ¨€????????? ]


    [ Void Rot has triggered on target: 20 damage.]


    [ Hydra Swarm HP: 99 822 / 105 000 ]


    Bringing all his weapons back he attacked the group of tentacles holding him in place.


    [ Void Rot has triggered on target: 25 damage.]


    [ Hydra Swarm HP: 98 050 / 105 000 ]


    [ Hydra Swarm HP: 98 350 / 105 000 ]


    The damage was good and Void Rot had now hit its max stack. However right after the damage was dealt the regeneration kicked in. At the moment Sam was satisfied that he was let go.


    He needed a way to fight this thing, normal attacks should be enough but if he missed another one of... almost anything., he was done. A crit slap would be more than enough to take him out as well, he couldn¡¯t take more hits and needed a more surefire way. He needed to protect himself and attack at the same time. On autopilot he shifted his Aura Points, putting 10 points into Defence and the remaining into Barrier. This lifted his Defence rating to 90, being able to handle any non-crit attacks by the barrage, and the barrier gave him 75 extra HP. Not enough to handle the larger attacks but it gave him a tiny peace of mind.


    The best idea he had was the lawnmower from before, spinning the weapons around him at rapid speed would create an impossible-to-penetrate area around him, it would cut anything attacking him, doing damage, as it also protected him.


    As he was thinking this, something else moved into his mind. He didn¡¯t know why it felt better to consider it as it didn¡¯t tick any of the needed boxes but he felt the need to try.


    Manifesting all his hands near the Hydra, Sam took out a single, cheap dagger from his Item Box. Not knowing all the physics behind it, he knew that water and fast-moving objects weren¡¯t always friends, so he made sure that there was practically no distance between his dagger and the Hydra¡¯s body.


    [ Telekinetic boost active. Time remaining: 55 / 57 seconds ]


    Stacking up all the Psyhands and triggering the Launch created an underwater explosion. The initial speed and interaction between the dagger and water made a cavitation bubble around itself and the point of contact. The tremendous speed the dagger suddenly launched with, sent it through the whole of the creature. A gnarly-looking entry wound which was further traumatized from the collapsing bubble and a horrifying exit wound on the other side of it left the bent and broken dagger sink like the scrap it had become. Considerable blood and gore were pulsing out of both the entry and exit wounds.


    The creature screeched out with a sound Sam had never heard, not that he expected an aquatic creature to ¡®scream¡¯. Twitching and writhing in pain it darted away from him at great speed.


    [ Void Rot has triggered on target: 25 damage.]


    [ Hydra Swarm HP: 98 320 / 105 000 ]


    ¡°It only did five damage?¡± Sam caught himself vocalizing his thoughts. This didn¡¯t make sense, the amount of damage this did was considerably higher than the other attacks, but the others did hundreds, if not a thousand damage.


    Wanting to go after it, he didn¡¯t risk it in his low health condition. One good swipe and he was fucked. If it feared him or needed to recharge its health, he would just have to accept that it would come back to full health if it gave him the needed time to heal his own.


    It wasn¡¯t easy to control his breathing in this scenario, not only from fear of getting hit and being in active combat but also from the slight excitement from the max-powered launch.


    Several seconds later he managed to control his breath and calm down, triggering Vital Recovery. It took some long seconds but he finally found himself back in full health!


    As he was focusing on his breath, his mind also wandered a little. What was with the mismatch of the damage done versus the damage listed? That massive wound could never just be five damage. It had taken many hits through their fight and this was the first time it reacted like that, retreated. But, being back at full health he moved the Aura Points into the Barrier, giving him a 125 HP shield. In his mind, Mathematically it was better to do it this way for now.


    Grabbing himself with all his Psyhands he started following the monster, he was going to repeat the effect and see how it went by doing that a few times. The only negative side was that it locked up all his hands for a brief moment, meaning this was a single-target thing. In this case, it worked fine as long as he didn¡¯t need to defend himself.


    The massive size of the creature and the illumination made finding it easy enough. Even if that was a problem it was bright enough to follow the blood in the water, Sam¡¯s limited tracking skills could do this easily. It didn¡¯t take long before he found himself nearing his attack range.


    ¡°Salutations, fucker!¡± Sam smiled as the creature¡¯s main body came into the range of his Area. There was a rush of adrenaline in Sam¡¯s body, his mind rushed with the feeling of being the source of fear rather than on the other side.


    A mix of revenge and intrigue woke up in his mind, moving his Aura Points from the Barrier he created a single Aura Blade.


    ¡°I bring gifts!¡±

 Ch.092 - Fourth

    Sam was attacked by a panicked barrage of tentacles, deflecting the ones about to hit, he moved the Aura Blade towards the creature, who panicked and created distance between them. The open area made chasing a problem, but not impossible.


    Recharging his breathing mask, he followed after, using his Psyhands to drag him, trying to corner the monster enough to get in range. Activating Invisibility, he hoped that it would do something, but alas the creature seemed to be able to sense or perceive him enough that it didn¡¯t matter.


    This chase back and forth ended up with Sam finally getting in range enough to send an Aura Blade at it with a Fully boosted Launch. The same underwater explosion, cavitation bubble and carnage happened, followed by the same pained screeching. Sam expected a counterattack this time, as soon as the blade had delivered its damage, he moved the Aura Points back to his Barrier.


    [ Void Rot has triggered on target: 25 damage.]


    [ Hydra Swarm HP: 104 850 / 105 000 ]


    During this whole time, Void Rot had been doing its thing, but the creature¡¯s regeneration was more than enough to overcome it. The blade delivered its listed 125 damage, but like before, the damage delivered didn¡¯t match the visual of just how much it was hurt.


    In an aggressively defensive move, the Hydra spun around, flailing all its arms as a collection of whips. There was no way to deflect it. Parrying an AOE attack didn¡¯t even make sense from a logical standpoint.


    [ Armour, Defence 80 has lowered the damage. ]


    [ Barrier HP: 0 / 125 ]


    [ HP: 150 / 305 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€????? ]


    [ Barbed Retribution: 30% damage was reflected. (45) ]


    The Defence and Barrier took a solid chunk out of the damage, but 155 still made it through. The reflected damage still didn¡¯t matter due to its regeneration.


    Sam wanted to take a chance to drink a potion, but that wouldn¡¯t be a good idea. Though he could probably drink it, it meant that he would have to take the mask off, leaving him blind for the seconds he needed. Those seconds would most likely mean a hit or two. Not a good trade. He would have to calm himself and deflect attacks, perhaps attack it repeatedly to keep it on its metaphorical toes.


    As he was looking for options, an idea struck in his mind, or rather he remembered something that made him feel stupid. He had already learned how to see and keep track of things without seeing!


    The monster only had ten tentacles, all of its attacks used those, so it only needed to grab onto them with ten of his Psyhands. Yes, this would cut down his available hands by 1/5th, but it still left him with 80% of his force.


    Keeping his defences up, he grabbed onto all the tentacles, it wasn¡¯t anywhere near enough to cause problems for the creature to move around or attack, but it gave Sam pinpoint control of where all of them were. Taking this moment to tear off his mask after inhaling, he focused on sensing with his Psyhands and deflected the incoming attacks with his other hands. This worked wondrously and though he swallowed some tainted seawater alongside the potion, it was more than enough!


    [ HP: 302 / 305 ¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€ ]


    Putting the mask back on it purged the water in a bubbly mess, but he could see again. Flinging both his hands up in victory, he continued his plan.


    Since the Barrier needed to recharge, he left it to do its thing as he repeated the massive Launching attack, breaking another dagger in a violent show of excessive force. A tentacle came off in the trauma, and the water grew murky enough to make it impossible to see anything.


    Pulling himself to the side, he kept his hands on the creature, but luckily, this was a wasted effort as it again darted off to try to hide in the open arena.


    Before it left, Sam managed to check the damage done, it was the same low number damage as before, but he took one of its arms. There was enough blood in the water that he wondered how it was still alive. Perhaps the regeneration ability helped, he didn¡¯t know.


    But at least he had a way out of this, it was afraid, Sam was not.


    Pulling himself after the creature, he used some time to find it this time as the water had surprisingly low visibility. However, giving it some time for the water to clear, he quickly found it in the distance.


    As he neared, the creature tried to swim away, though one lacking tentacle didn¡¯t slow it down, there wasn¡¯t anywhere to hide and it was in range soon enough.


    Ignoring the normal attacks, Sam opted to go for what worked, though he didn¡¯t understand just why it worked at the moment, he didn¡¯t mind.


    As soon as he got in range, he reached out all his Psyhands and repeated the attack. Manifesting a cheap dagger, he pulsed everything into it. Consuming another five seconds of his Telekinetic boost, the dagger tore through the creature. Doing it again tore another massive wound, and again. Five pulses later the creature was barely able to move.


    Even though each attack only did 5 damage, and was healed up almost immediately, the wounds to the creature were nothing short of horrifying. Almost full health but weak, barely able to lift a tentacle as it started to slowly sink towards the bottom of the large room they were in.


    Sam was feeling almost a bit... mean. He started with protecting himself, meaning that anything he did here felt justified. But the latter attacks, it was just running away. He was locked in here and would eventually die even if he let it live. He had learned something interesting and surprising, so if nothing else he felt that he could return the favour by making it quick.


    Expending the remaining of his Telekinetic Boost, he got a few more Launches, which finally had the Hydra stop moving and continue its slow fall towards the bottom.


    [ Dungeon clear conditions:


    Kill the Hydra Swarm: 1/1 - Completed. ]


    Sam had mixed feelings on this. On one side, this was a horrifying DPS race where defences or lack thereof would be made very apparent. And you just needed to keep doing more and more damage. A true raid boss if he ever saw one. But at the same time, the way he defeated it by doing 5 damage at a time, something that didn¡¯t even make sense, he had discovered something he needed to test more.


    As he took a moment to relax and analyse what was going on, the murky waters slowly cleared up. There seemed to be at least some natural movement in it, and a familiar window popped up.


    [ Experience gained: %¡è&!¡è#. ]


    ¡°Oh...¡± Sam commented, seeing the corrupted text changed his sense of victory to dread.


    The window closed and a new one opened.


    [ Levelup +10! ]


    ¡°....¡± Sam felt a weird need to say something, but as he was alone there was no need. ¡°Ten levels...¡± he ended up letting out for himself.


    On one hand, this was amazing, but on the other, only ten levels also felt a bit lacklustre. Had he not ended up with the damage surpassing attacks, he would most likely never have made it out of this. Why did the system put him against this thing when he realistically wouldn¡¯t have a chance to make it out of here?


    Instinctively putting all 10 points into Spirit, another window popped up.


    [ Level 30 reached. Fourth class skill granted: Thoughtform Psyhands. ]


    [ Thoughtform Psyhands: When manifesting a Psyhand, it can be manifested as a hand or as an object.


    -If the object is a weapon, it does 1/2 Spirit damage no matter what shape it has. ]


    Sam was very happy about this, though he still didn¡¯t like being pulled into these solo dungeons, he always came out of them with something good.


    And with his spirit now on 67, other things had bumped up!


    [ XP to level 40: 535 496 888 081 / 2 748 779 069 440 ¨€¨€???????? ]


    [ HP: 355 / 355 ]


    [ Energy: 33 ]


    [ Aura Points: 27 ]


    His happiness calmed down a bit once he saw that he needed over two trillion XP for level 40. But instead of focusing on that, he wanted to get out of here, he had some thoughts he wanted to check with Janik.


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    Pulling himself to the rough center of the area he was in, he found the exit portal as expected, at least the system was consistent. Not waiting longer than he had to, he made for the exit portal and as soon as he triggered the exit and was enveloped by the white light, he cursed internally as he realised he forgot the Core.


    ¡°Fuck!¡± His muffled voice behind the mask shouted out once he felt his feet stand on solid ground. His annoyance was expressed at the loss of the core, but it faded as he felt the air on his skin and was able to take off the mask.


    ¡°Fucking shit, how long was I gone this time?¡± He asked himself, wondering how bad this had been for the others. Though, they were probably somewhat used to it at this point.


    Looking around, he was back on the path leading up towards the Third Floor exit portal, the sun had gone down and it was in the middle of the night. Like before, he was exactly where he was when he was taken. The only difference was that he was now alone, still wet from the sullied water, and smelled like salt and fish guts.


    This wasn¡¯t an issue, annoying but fine as far as his stuff went on, rather he was more interested in the Thoughtform Psyhands.


    He manifested a pair of Psyhands, but he mentally wanted one to be a dagger and the other to be a greatsword. Sam¡¯s face turned to surprise when they manifested instantly, but in contrast to normal, they were visible, barely glowing translucent teal weapons hovered in the air in front of him. A small dagger as well as a two-handed greatsword. They looked surprisingly mundane and simple in design, but they both read the same.


    [ Psy-weapon:


    Damage: 33.


    Type: Slashing, Piercing. ]


    This had Sam wonder, he manifested another pair and focused on one of them as a hammer, it had the same damage but listed as Blunt this time.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s amazing,¡± left his lips as he despawned the new weapons. Thought the weapon size didn¡¯t change anything, the damage type could be controlled.


    Doing some quick math, with his new Spirit, Energy and thus ability to manifest 66 Psyhands, using his current arsenal, he would do 1500 damage, which was up from 1465 before the Spirit increase if filled with 5dmg daggers. Not counting critical hits or extra bonuses. If he swapped out the 5 damage daggers for 20 damage ones, this bumped to 1725. But if he swapped everything having less than 30 damage for a Psy-weapon, his total damage output increased to 2380. Which was a substantial increase.


    If he did this to all the weapons, he would lose the effects of Shadow Fang, Bleeding Edge, Vampiric Dagger and the Bloodstone Dagger. The problem with them was that they had about 10% chance to trigger their effects, which in order were a 1 second blind, 5 bleed, 1 life steal and a crit that did 5 life steal. The bleed was a bit sad to lose, but 10% chance against the damage boost made this a simple trade. He¡¯d sell them when he got back.


    Walking up the path, he made straight for the portal leading out of this place. Exiting as soon as he got in range of the exit zone, he found himself back on Earth right after. It only took a few seconds before his phone vibrated several times. Taking it out, he saw a bunch of messages from Janik. Like before, there were some pictures of Dia, Elara and the kids, they seemed like they were having fun. There were also several messages telling him to call as soon as he could, no matter what time it was.


    It was nighttime, and after his phone had synced he saw that it was past 2 AM, and it was two weeks since he disappeared.


    ¡°God damn time dilation shit...¡± Sam commented to himself as he took Janik up on the order, calling him.


    Sam was surprised when the one answering wasn¡¯t Janik, but Dia.


    ¡°Zar! Zar back?!¡± She sounded almost desperate.


    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m back,¡± he replied, and as soon as he confirmed it, he heard the phone being dropped and a very excited Dia running off shouting for Janik.


    He held the phone for a short moment before it was picked up again. ¡°Your girl tells me you¡¯re back,¡± Janik commented calmly.


    ¡°Yep. Full of saltwater and squid guts, but I¡¯m back.¡±


    ¡°I... I suppose we can meet up and you can tell me about it?¡± Though Janik had a questioning tone, there was a subtle hint of this not being a question.


    ¡°Yeah, that works out, I¡¯ll get a room and clean up,¡± Sam commented as he caught himself smiling at Dia¡¯s happy noises in the background.


    ¡°We¡¯ll be there in not long,¡± Janik commented right before he reacted as if he was jumped on before the call ended.


    Sam chuckled to himself as he pocketed his phone, heading back to TAC to get a room and some food.


    Coming out of the shower, he had at least rinsed off his gear before ordering a cleaning service on the clothing and armour to get it properly cleaned. Most of the weapons were surprisingly fine, might be the fire and electricity when he uses it that takes care of things, or just that he didn¡¯t use them that much this round, opting for the Launch instead.


    He got dressed and started eating, but it didn¡¯t take long before there was a single knock on the door, followed by frantic knocking. Assuming this was Dia he used a Psyhand to unlock it, bracing for impact.


    The door flung open and an eager Dia came in. In the same movement as she saw Sam, she beelined for him, not breaking in the slightest as she crashed into him. Had he not already expected this and sat down on the couch, he would have been knocked over and most likely slammed into the floor.


    She proceeded to make happy noises as she rubbed her face against his neck like a dog who hadn¡¯t seen its owner for months. Janik was more composed as he closed the door after himself, sitting down on a chair instead of on the couch.


    Janik crouched down to let Elara slither down his arm onto the floor, she came over to Sam and coiled up between him and the edge of the couch.


    ¡°I¡¯m glad to see you in good shape,¡± Janik smiled, giving Dia her moment to get her thing out of her system.


    ¡°Yeah, same. It was short for me this time, I don¡¯t think I was in there for more than an hour or two,¡± Sam smiled back, his head being knocked back and forth at the eager Dia who received a strong hug instead. Both for his own sake, but also to somewhat keep her calm for a moment.


    Dia went into a long rant in her native tongue, though Sam somewhat knew at least some of the language, it was far too fast for him to follow it. He understood that she was lonely and felt alone, even though Janik and the kids helped her.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m back now,¡± was the only thing he could reply with. Since he thought he only got half of whatever she said.


    ¡°When, Zar leave next?¡± She looked at him with large, sad eyes as she asked.


    ¡°I have no idea,¡± he smiled solemnly at her, as he honestly had no idea. ¡°But, that brings me to something.¡± Sam refocused onto Janik before continuing. ¡°I have a few things I think I realised. I think the Solo dungeons are related to my wishes, a way for the Hax-system to give me something but not for free. Each Solo Dungeon gave me something I wanted but in a roundabout way. I wanted good gear, and I got the vampiric Blade in the flesh dungeon. Though I had you, I was unsure and wanted a better team, I was sent to the PvP island, but got Dia and some gear. Now I wanted to speed up the levelling, not wanting to grind for days and.... Though the fight was... interesting, it gave me ten levels.¡±


    Janik¡¯s smile was still on his face, but it turned very fake and forced. ¡°Oh. Ten levels... How good for you...¡± His voice wasn¡¯t in it.


    ¡°Well, I had to fight a Hydra Squid thing with over a hundred thousand in health, and a 300 HP a round auto heal, if you want to give it a go.¡± Sam countered with an annoyed tone.


    This softened Janik¡¯s expression. ¡°Oh, damn... How did you beat that?¡±


    Sam explained the fight, what the squid could do, and it¡¯s deal, but in more detail he explained the weird way that he took it out.


    ¡°Wait, so... Your attack only did five damage?¡± Janik¡¯s face screamed of disbelief.


    ¡°I know, it doesn¡¯t make sense. The Health listed only the normal damage but in reality, it hurt it considerably, even to the point of losing a tentacle once.¡±


    ¡°That... doesn¡¯t make sense at all...¡±


    ¡°I know, but I think it might be related to the System as a whole. Though the solo dungeons might be a way for the Hax system to help me grow without giving it for free, flagging something, I think I have a theory on why the damage I did was listed as low even though I severely hurt it.¡±


    Janik looked more interested than before, leaning forwards in his chair. ¡°Go on.¡±

 Ch.093 - Shield

    Sam had to wipe his face after his canid companion decided to lick it for longer than he would have liked. Janik chuckled but brought the focus back to the explanation.


    ¡°What do you mean breaking the system?¡±


    ¡°Well,¡± Sam went into detail. ¡°I¡¯m sure you, like many others, wondered why guns don¡¯t work on Players, or how if I take a kitchen knife to stab you with, it won¡¯t do anything but a Player item does. Or all of this game-like logic. If you look at this with a game logic in mind, it starts making sense, the System is somehow controlling all this, now... Though guns are fast, it¡¯s a well-known process that¡¯s just blocked from working in Aetheria, but stronger weapons can still hurt Players. Why do you think that is?¡±


    Sam left the question open for Janik to comment on, but he just sat there, waiting for Sam to continue.


    ¡°The answer is simple: Speed. Things moving too fast in games can crash the physics engine, sending things through walls or killing you when it normally shouldn¡¯t do damage. Smaller guns won¡¯t kill you because the system expects speed to come out of a gun, but faster or stronger guns still hurt players on Earth. Within Aetheria, they just don¡¯t work, which is probably a hacky solution, but when I launch the dagger at greater than sound speed, I think the System wants the dagger to do damage. It does, but the speed lets it do ¡®normal physics¡¯ as it¡¯s just too much for the system there and then.¡±


    Janik thought about it for a solid few seconds. ¡°So, the idea here is that..¡± His brow furrowed as he continued thinking during his talk. ¡°If I somehow were able to throw my sword fast enough, it would do normal damage because the System wants it to, but since it¡¯s moving so fast the System isn¡¯t able to stop it from also using physics?¡±


    ¡°Kind of, yes,¡± Sam nodded. ¡°It¡¯s just a theory but... You saw the structural damage the dagger did when I power-launched it through the log. That attack registered as 5 damage against the Hydra, even though it tore through its entire body, or when I cut off its tentacle.¡±


    Janik nodded slowly as he analysed it, putting his elbows on his knees and resting his chin against his fists. ¡°So basically you¡¯re able to abuse a glitch in the physics engine to... do ¡®logical damage¡¯ even if the numbers don¡¯t match?¡± Lifting his chin off his hands, he made air quotes around the statement.


    ¡°I know this sounds insane but it feels like it makes sense based on what I saw,¡± Sam defended his statement, but his expression explained that he was also sceptical.


    Janik noticed his expression and sat back up properly. ¡°It¡¯s not that I don¡¯t believe you, it actually explains a few things about why guns don¡¯t work in Aetheria, or how certain rogue large-scale events have had weird outcomes. Explosions sometimes do more things than they should, but those cases are very rare.¡±


    Janik was locked in thought for a few seconds. ¡°Won¡¯t this get attention from them somehow?¡±


    ¡°Oh, it might but... I am wondering if the Solo dungeons aren¡¯t entirely automatic or random. I don¡¯t think I¡¯m the only Hax out there,¡± Sam still felt weird using the codeword but to avoid getting censored it was the best he had. ¡°But it kind of feels that someone might be abusing some rules in the system to let me get things. As I mentioned, the Solo dungeons have given me somewhat what I wanted, but I had to earn it.¡±


    ¡°You have a point there,¡± Janik¡¯s brow hadn¡¯t unfurrowed yet but he started looking at the floor in thought. ¡°This raises all kinds of questions and problems... I don¡¯t even know what to do with this.¡± Janik looked slightly lost.


    ¡°If it helps, nor do I... I figured this out somewhat randomly, but it makes things interesting, I want to test this more. I also need to be careful with what I wish for...¡±


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t help, no, but yeah.¡± During his answer, Janik¡¯s normal smile grew on his lips and without any tact he changed the subject, almost to lighten the mood. ¡°But, more importantly, what did you get from it this time?¡±


    ¡°Ten levels,¡± Sam replied.


    Janik¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Oh, wow. That¡¯s amazing.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, in one way it felt surprisingly lacklustre, and I now need over two trillion for the next, but it gave me the Level 30 Class ability.¡± Sam¡¯s expression started dissatisfied but changed to end on a slight smile.


    ¡°Oh, do tell!¡±


    ¡°The skill is named [ Thoughtform Psyhands ], and it lets me manifest a Psyhand as an object. If I make a weapon, I get half my Spirit as a base damage,¡± to prove his point, he manifested a few Psy-weapons, a few blades, maces and a hammer.


    Being able to see them caught Janik off guard, sitting back in his chair, he looked at the floating ghostly weapons for a second. ¡°This is amazing, a bit creepy but amazing.¡±


    ¡°Yes, individually they aren¡¯t as good as I can make an Aura blade, but rough math raises my total volley damage by close to 900, and it lets me change damage type easily.¡±


    During his explanation, he noticed that Dia had calmed down and had fallen asleep draped across him like a living blanket.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s not making me jealous at all...¡± Janik smiled but the fake-lie was not hard to decipher. ¡°But, can you make anything? Or just weapons?¡±


    Sam paused a bit, the skill listed object, just special rules for things doing damage. To test this, he despawned the weapons and made a few other objects. A small shield, a chair, a ball, a fork, a length of rope and a bucket. All of the objects acted as expected, save that the rope was rigid and not that long, the fork also displayed a base damage like other weapons.


    Gently waking Dia, Sam had an idea.


    Dia slowly opened her eyes, not wanting to move, looking at him with a questioning look. ¡°Vrana yap sark?¡± The Yap was the yapping sound mixed in between words.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to make noise, thought it was better to wake you first,¡± he replied to her.


    She nodded and looked around, suddenly widening her eyes as she saw the floating, teal objects.


    Sam answered before she got to ask. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m the one making these.¡±


    This seemed to calm her down a bit.


    ¡°What are you going to test?¡± Janik asked as he moved further away from the open space between them.


    ¡°Since my Psyhands can¡¯t be damaged, and Player items never get dull or seem to break, I wonder if it¡¯s the same for the items, since they are just my Psyhands in different shapes.¡±


    He kept his shield manifested but despawned all the random objects, pulling out his full swarm instead, all but one weapon which was still the shield.


    He floated the shield, no larger than a frozen pizza, over to the entry area, wanting to keep some distance, before he attacked it with everything he had. A swarm of swords, characram and axe almost engulfed by 49 teal Psyblades crashed into the single shield before it slammed into the wall, damaging it considerably. The sound from the 55 weapons landing at the same time was as strange. There was a metallic and stone sound mixed in, but since the majority of weapons were manifested they had an almost electric clang to them. Sam reacted to the fact that the volume was much lower than expected.


    ¡°.... Perhaps I should have done this in the training area....¡±


    Janik looked at the chaos happening in the entryway, then back to Sam with a wide look. ¡°How much damage would that have done?¡±


    ¡°2 347,¡± Sam replied with an uncertain expression.


    ¡°First of all.. That¡¯s some fucked up damage. Second, that shield is amazing.¡± He walked towards it, still embedded in the wall.


    Sam tried to lift Dia into the couch, but she climbed off and stood up instead, following him as he walked with them over to the damage.


    The other weapons were despawned, or the weapons put back in storage and then the hands dismissed.


    ¡°The shield stopped the damage, but didn¡¯t help the momentum.¡± He despawned it and made a new one next to him, pushing it with his hands. ¡°It can¡¯t be damaged, which is good, but it doesn¡¯t make the force behind it stronger. I can barely lift a laptop with one Psyhand, so that¡¯s the momentum it can handle.¡±


    ¡°Oh, well...¡± Janik pondered for a second. ¡°Then don¡¯t resist it through force, wedge it in cave hallways, or make a dome and stand under it, something like that. The force of the attack will be transferred to the ground, wall... whatever.¡± He smiled widely like he just found the cure to everything.


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    ¡°That¡¯s... a pretty good idea. I could perhaps have strong legs extend from shields standing upright, making support of my own. It might take more ¡®hands¡¯ to make work but it would make it work.¡±


    Having some ideas he wanted to talk about, he was interrupted by the room phone ringing, picking it up, he answered.


    ¡°Hello?¡±


    ¡°Hello, this is the reception, is this Sam Carter in room 524?¡± A female voice asked in a slightly distressed tone.


    ¡°Err... yes...?¡± He already knew what this was about. He trashed a wall, that would probably be noticed.


    ¡°We noticed some noise and vibration from your area, is everything fine?¡± The question was leading even if it was focused on his safety.


    ¡°Yeah, I just accidentally destroyed the wall into the bathroom, when the guys are done cleaning my gear they can take a look at it, I¡¯ll pay for the damages.¡± Sam didn¡¯t care at this point, it would probably cost more than it was worth, but he just wanted the talk to be over.


    The woman let out a relieved sigh. ¡°I¡¯m glad to hear it. Your safety, I mean. A shame about the wall but that is fine, I¡¯ll leave a note for the people coming up with your gear when it¡¯s cleaned.¡±


    ¡°That works, thanks,¡± Sam commented and hung up as soon as she confirmed from her side.


    ¡°Should have seen that coming,¡± Janik smiled with a chuckle.


    ¡°Yeah, though I should have done this in the training hall, it¡¯s still a good test!¡± Sam was eager, manifesting another shield. This time he made it as large as he could but it didn¡¯t become any larger than an A4 page. He tried several other shapes as well, but he couldn¡¯t make things too flat or too large, which was interesting and annoying as he could make simple greatswords or longer things, but that would suffer in width. Though he could make smaller things, but after they were created, he couldn¡¯t change the size, they remained as they were created.


    ¡°Bleh, can¡¯t make something small and expand it either,¡± Sam commented annoyed. ¡°Could strangle so many things if that worked.¡±


    ¡°It seems you¡¯re restricted by volume, not size,¡± Janik commented after having been a part of testing. ¡°I can¡¯t do volume math in my head but, hold on.¡± He took out his phone and searched around, finding the volume of various objects. ¡°Ah, yeah, that makes sense. As strange as it sounds, a simple greatsword and a large hand have roughly the same volume, your shield and other things can¡¯t become larger than your hands in volume.¡±


    Sam let out a dissatisfied click. ¡°Well, it¡¯s still super versatile but that was a bit annoying. If I wanted to hide behind a wall, I would need to find a way to interlock them to make a larger plate to hide behind, like a door.¡±


    To test his statement, he made a square plate as large as he could, it was about the same size as before, just that it wasn¡¯t round and had the square edges. Stacking them on each other, trying to fill a doorframe, he ended up using 24 plates, thus 24 hands, he stacked them together into a plate barely smaller than the doorframe.


    ¡°Well, I can make things like this, but...¡± Lightly punching one of them had it move out of formation, creating a large square hole. ¡°It¡¯s not like this will work, so interlocking, yeah.¡±


    He spent some time testing this, it was fun. Dia had gone back to the couch and played with Elara, she seemed interested in the things he made at first, but it became repetitive and uneventful for her.


    ¡°Well, like the rope, I can¡¯t make anything flexible, but the chain worked out, but that¡¯s probably because it¡¯s not flexible, solid links make it seem bendy,¡± Sam summarized after testing. ¡°It¡¯s also strange how I can make a knife¡¯s blade come to a point and be sharp, but I can¡¯t make something thinner than my phone.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, moving parts seem to be fine as long as it can be made of solid objects, so no bows but things with gears are probably good,¡± Janik added, making a summary of his own. ¡°This is kind of exciting. Oh, and another thing,¡± in the middle of his sentence he seemed to suddenly realize or remember something. ¡°Elara sold a bunch of her Venom.¡± His smile grew larger than it was before.


    Sam turned towards his companion, he had somewhat forgotten she was doing this, in the suddenness of other things. ¡°Is that so?¡±


    Currently being coiled around one of Dia¡¯s tails, almost disappearing into the fur, her head perked up towards Sam. ¡°Yes,¡± she replied first as she slithered out of Dia¡¯s fur and started moving towards Sam. ¡°It took a short while for people to start buying it, but I sold all my charges each day.¡±


    ¡°Each day? All 29 of them?¡± Sam asked, surprised. He had expected people would get it but this felt a bit much. ¡°Were you selling it too cheap?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not used to the value of money,¡± she replied half hesitantly. ¡°Janik suggested I should take 30 000 per dose.¡±


    Sam looked at Janik in surprise. ¡°Isn¡¯t that a bit high?¡±


    ¡°Not at all, doing the math you need 24 Vitality to even have a slight chance to resist it, so that covers almost everything through the Second Floor. Save the chunkiest things, it¡¯ll also work fine on the Third Floor. To many it¡¯s worth 30 thousand to just shoot an arrow or somehow get this into a boss and just run away. And... in a terrifying way, in PvP it¡¯s probably terrifying, I only have 20 Vitality so...¡± Going into teacher-mode in the start his expression faded into more hesitance at the end.


    This put things into perspective for Sam, it made sense. He got the PvP value as well. Considering how fast and easy he got money during his levelling, he could imagine this being worth it for higher level players or a small group wanting a secure way to take out something dangerous.


    ¡°Wait, isn¡¯t that a lot of money?¡±


    Elara smiled widely, ¡°After their fee, I have gotten almost 11 million.¡± The tip of her tail was wagging like a small dog waiting for their complement.


    ¡°Holy shit, that¡¯s a lot!¡± Sam let out, repeating himself without the questioning tone. ¡°I mean, I expected a few to sell but not this much.¡±


    Crouching down, he reached out his hand, letting Elara climb on board. ¡°I¡¯ll admit I don¡¯t know what to do in this situation, it¡¯s a lot of money, which you earned on your own, I feel it¡¯s only fair that you decide what to do with it.¡±


    He had planned for whatever she earned to be for her, though at the time he decided that he didn¡¯t expect these sums, but he was carrying an expected over $3 million in cores alone. Adding on that he remembered having over $2 million in the bank, he was going to sell more stuff, but assuming somewhere around 5-6 million in cash after all of that, she had more disposable money than he did. Sam didn¡¯t see this as a negative thing, but he found it kind of interesting and weird.


    She stopped mid-slither up his arm and looked at him with a surprised expression. ¡°But I¡¯m Master¡¯s companion, the money I earn is yours.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, you can say that, but it doesn¡¯t feel right. You might ¡®just¡¯ be a companion,¡± he made airquotes with the arm Elara wasn¡¯t currently climbing. ¡°But you¡¯re your own person in my mind.¡± Ending with a smile, her surprised expression softened into a weirdly embarrassed smile of her own.


    ¡°Well, I guess that¡¯s my cue to leave,¡± Janik commented. ¡°You guys woke me at 2 AM for this. Something I¡¯m happy about, of course, but I¡¯m tired and gotta get the kids up in a few hours.¡± Walking over to Sam, he grabbed him in a tight, lifting hug. ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re back, at least it was only two weeks this time.¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Sam replied solemnly, he enjoyed the hug but was more focused on the Solo Dungeon¡¯s time dilation. ¡°To me it was only an hour or two, not sure. Before that, I don¡¯t even know how long I was in there but... my point is there¡¯s not consistency to things.¡±


    Janik ended his hug with a tighter squeeze before he put Sam back on the floor, ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll find out what you need about it, but for now I think you should rest, or whatever Dia has planned.¡± His supportive tone turned to a weird, knowing smile as he nodded towards Dia who was sitting patiently on the couch, waiting.


    ¡°I guess I¡¯ll talk to you tomorrow... or technically, later today?¡± Sam asked as Janik walked to the door.


    ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll send you a text when I wake up, we¡¯ll take it from there.¡± Waving to the group, Janik closed the door after himself and left for the night.


    Elara seemed to have a knowing smile and slithered off Sam onto a nearby fake plant.


    Dia¡¯s two tails had been wagging slowly for a while now, but it became more energetic now that Sam looked back at her. He didn¡¯t need to say anything before something triggered and she pounced out of the sofa.

 Ch.094 - Ocean floor

    Waking up around noon, Sam didn¡¯t need to worry about waking Dia this time; she wasn¡¯t in the room. Looking around, he saw a notification in the corner of his eye. Checking it out, he found that the Ascendant system had given him 3 points to spend, but as usual, it didn¡¯t specify what triggered it or where this was going.


    Right now, it was just metaphorical free levels, he put the three points in Spirit, bumping it to 70. Which lifted his health to 370, his Energy and hands he could create to 70, and raised the Aura points to 28. On top of this were secondary effects like Static Charge, so it was a good upgrade.


    He felt a bit weird at how it was weirdly becoming normal for him to get these points, he wanted to know more but this was ¡®just how it was¡¯ at the moment...


    Getting up to go through his routine, he found her in the living room with Elara. Dia was inspecting Elara¡¯s fangs, seeming to find it very entertaining that she could move them back and forth in her mouth.


    ¡°Zar!¡± she exclaimed as she saw him, putting Elara down on the table before running over. ¡°Elara frak morr!¡± She used two fingers to simulate fangs on herself, ignoring that she also had fangs, she moved the fingers back to simulate how a snake¡¯s fangs can bend back.


    ¡°Yeah, many snakes can move their teeth, it¡¯s neat,¡± he smiled back at her, encouraging her eagerness. ¡°I think all fanged snakes can? Not sure to be honest. And now that I think about it, there¡¯s a lot about your biology I know anything about.¡± Peering past Dia, he looked at Elara who had coiled up on the table allowing her to lift her head higher.


    Elara tilted her head to the side with a curious look, her small forked tongue tasting the air.


    ¡°I mean... I don¡¯t mean any of this rudely, you¡¯re quite smart, can even do math and consider complex things like how phones work, but do snakes have that kind of brainpower? And you can talk, so you must have vocal cords... also something snakes don¡¯t normally have.¡± He looked at her with confused and interested eyes.


    She tilted her head the other way. ¡°I don¡¯t know. I haven¡¯t considered my anatomy before, or how I¡¯m different from other snakes.¡±


    ¡°I mean, in a way it doesn¡¯t matter, you¡¯re still you, but I¡¯m kind of curious now.¡± He smiled a bit hesitantly.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know how I can show any of that, I can open my mouth but I think that¡¯s about it,¡± Elara smiled back, seeming happy to be the main focus of his intrigue.


    ¡°I don¡¯t have any snake knowledge, so thanks but I doubt it¡¯d give me any good info,¡± he smiled back. ¡°Instead, have you considered what you want to use your money on?¡±


    ¡°Oh... no,¡± she answered hesitantly. ¡°My needs, or rather, my wishes are simple. I don¡¯t need much. I like being useful to you and if anything, I like to hunt.¡±


    ¡°Well, I can take you on hunts whenever I can, but that doesn¡¯t cost... anything to be honest.¡± Scratching his head, he moved towards the bathroom. ¡°It¡¯s your money to use as you want, if you want to give it to me I won¡¯t say no, but I prefer that you use at least some of it on yourself. Perhaps some skills or items you want.¡± Nodding towards the room tablet before he closed the door, he hoped that she would take a look and find something.


    Doing his business, he came out fully dressed and geared, to find Dia sitting on the sofa with Elara on her lap. Dia was holding the tablet to give Elara easier access to scroll and tap on it with her tail.


    ¡°Anything good?¡± Sam asked as he walked over.


    ¡°Not really, there are some spells that could be interesting but my Spirit is zero and I don¡¯t want to invest in that.¡± She was scrolling as she answered, looking at the tablet more than Sam.


    ¡°Ah, well. We can check again in a while, the availability of skills changes from minute to minute,¡± Sam replied as he moved for the door. ¡°I have a few things I need to sell off, thought I¡¯d go get some food at the same time. You want to come?¡±


    ¡°Dia want!¡± Dia replied eagerly, placing the tablet on the table and bringing Elara as she ran to Sam. They all got ready to leave and went to the lobby. The trip down only took a minute and they found themselves in the queue to sell things, waiting. He sent a text to Janik about meeting up, getting a reply, and he agreed to meet in the mess like normal.


    Like always, he placed the things on the table.


    ¡°I also have a bunch of Cores and Crystals, you want me to spread them across the table here or?¡± He asked, not wanting to just dump 100 items across the place.


    ¡°We can do them in batches,¡± the middle-aged man behind the desk confirmed. ¡°Do a few at a time, I¡¯ll scan them and move them, and we can do it that way.¡± He smiled.


    Sam nodded and started with the cores, exactly as the man stated they did a few, got them registered and did the next batch as he moved them to storage behind the desk. The process took a while due to volume but it was manageable. Once all the Cores and Crystals were scanned, Sam moved on to the old armour and weapons.


    ¡°Ok, that all comes up to $4 919 500, should I deposit that to your account?¡± His smile was practiced and he didn¡¯t react at all to the sum.


    Sam briefly wondered what kinds of sums this man was used to seeing.


    ¡°That¡¯s fine, please do.¡± Sam nodded and left the desk once everything was done. The group set their target to the mess hall, got some food and sat down to eat and wait.


    As they waited, Dia opted to scoot closer and sit against him, enjoying just sitting there. Sam took to scrolling the marketplace with Elara, seeing if something new and interesting had come up.


    ¡°OH!¡± Sam exclaimed as he saw an Appraise C, hitting buy on it had the app working for a few seconds before displaying an error, listing that it was out of stock. ¡°Wow, that was fast...¡±


    Janik had explained this before but it still went much faster than he expected. Seeing a resource-pool boost skill for 5 million, the process repeated, but this time he got it!


    He felt good about at least getting the resource pool boost, it wasn¡¯t amazingly powerful, only 20%, but it would be a scaling bonus that would improve everything. Elara continued to browse and hit buy suddenly as well. Sam was busy trying to do the mental math to find out how much his Energy pool would increase by 20% that he didn¡¯t notice Janik until he suddenly sat down.


    ¡°Mornin¡¯¡° he cheekily commented at 1 PM.


    Sam chuckled at the dry, dumb joke. ¡°Morning to you as well. Are you ready for some rushing?¡±


    He had vaguely planned that he wanted to get done with the 3rd Floor as soon as possible. It was a boring and annoying Floor being all underwater and barren of people. He wanted to get to a place with more activity, and more intrigue in a different way.


    ¡°Oh, you think you can blast through the rest of the Third Floor? I doubt I¡¯m gonna be much help, and what was it...¡± During talking, he took out his phone and scrolled a bit to find something. ¡°Ah, yes, the boss of the last dungeon, over 2000 health, 300 Defence, and capable of doing 420 damage with secondary effects.¡±


    Sam thought about it for a second. ¡°To be honest... That doesn¡¯t sound too bad... I forgot to calculate elemental damage yesterday, and I was ¡®gifted¡¯ some points, I also just got a new skill I¡¯ll pick up after that¡¯ll increase my Energy, meaning that once it¡¯s all done I...¡±


    Using his phone¡¯s calculator to get all the math going, he calculated his new Energy, and the total damage he can do with elemental considered this time. ¡°Let¡¯s see... 84 hands, using the Psi-weapons... Add electrical and fire damage, but halved for Elemental Resistance and Defence, not cunting crits and whatnot: 3 502 damage.¡±


    Janik sat there with wide eyes.


    ¡°Oh, if I manage to sneak up on it, add 50%,¡± Sam smiled widely, feeling surprisingly good about his numbers.


    ¡°Ok... first of all... wow...¡± He was at a loss for words. ¡°That¡¯s all kinds of terrifying...¡±


    ¡°A bit more if I focus Aura on boosting weapon damage.¡± Sam continued to stack things, though he didn¡¯t bother re-doing the math if he was to keep Invisibility going as that would remove 10 Energy, so 20 hands. Though these would be Psy-weapons, it still added up.


    ¡°Yes, yes, I get it,¡± Janik raised his hands defensively to get him to stop. ¡°You¡¯re amazing and I¡¯m not envious at all.¡± Ending with a deep sigh, Janik thought about it for a moment.


    ¡°It sounds like this can be done relatively fast. Though we¡¯re somewhat under-levelled, you have the damage output of a large group on your own, and it¡¯s not like we need to come with you, like on the Second Floor.¡±


    ¡°Pretty much, yes,¡± Sam confirmed. ¡°And you might be under-levelled now, as we get to the Fourth Floor and start doing things there, you should catch up soon enough. At least up to about the same level, or one below.¡± He added the latter due to how scaling math worked.


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    Though Dia was in a cheating situation, and Elara would be, by default, a bit behind, Janik would catch up to a level or two below him and somewhat stay at that distance. At least for a while.


    Janik continued to think about this for a few seconds. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m liking this. It¡¯s not like I want to put you in extra danger but... if you use your aura thing to defend yourself, you have good armour, perhaps invisibility and... idiotic damage level, I don¡¯t imagine this being a true danger for you.¡±


    Sam nodded, the highest damage Janik mentioned before was 420, putting Aura in the HP barrier gives him 140 extra health, his Defence was 80 and his current health was 370. Tanking one of those hits would leave him with about 170 health. The real danger was a lucky critical hit...


    But grinding up ten more levels with the progression on the Third Floor was unacceptable in Sam¡¯s mind.


    He understood how the scaling and progression of the Tower were scaled against the Players, having them take more and more risk... but feeling it on himself like this made it much more real.


    ¡°I¡¯m good to go now, just get this over with, with how I am currently, I feel fine,¡± Sam stated with confidence, though he also tried to keep arrogance in mind. He didn¡¯t intend to die because he thought too much about his abilities.


    ¡°Well, in that case, let¡¯s go,¡± Janik replied as he got up. ¡°I always wanted to go to the Fourth Floor, it sounds cool.¡±


    Sam knew the rough gist, he had been reading about things before he became a Player, and it¡¯s not like he had been reading less since. The Fourth Floor was composed of floating islands. Bridges or flight was the only way to get between them. Nobody knew how far up or down the area went as the winds would tear drones or people apart.


    ¡°I don¡¯t see a problem with that, I feel pretty fed up with the Third Floor anyway, so let¡¯s get this over with.


    They left the mess hall and, with a stop at the Marketplace handout station, Sam got his resource boost Skill Crystal, and they moved back to Aetheria. This time Elara came with them. They landed as normal on the top of the island and Janik pointed downhill behind them.


    ¡°We¡¯re going this way,¡± he was looking at his phone as he continued. ¡°We¡¯re going down here and we¡¯ll take the bridge there to the diving spot.¡±


    Sam looked at where he was pointing and, he had briefly seen the bridge before but not properly looked at it. It was a long floating bridge constructed in the ocean. It went out like a massive pier, large enough to let two large cars pass each other on it, made of concrete and metal it reached out a considerable distance.


    ¡°At the end,¡± Janik started explaining as he walked down, motioning for the others to follow. ¡°There is a diving spot where we go down to the entry portal some distance underwater.¡±


    ¡°I suppose that means that Elara won¡¯t be coming with us,¡± Sam smiled at his reptile companion. ¡°I suppose you¡¯ll be waiting, then.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not a problem, I can hunt,¡± she looked back at him, not seeming to mind at all.


    ¡°That¡¯s true, your venom is quite dangerous at the moment, so I¡¯m sure you can handle whatever you want. Just be careful.¡± Sam replied. He knew her venom was terrifyingly potent, but she only had 82 HP and zero defence, considering her level she was quite weak defensively.


    It did make him wonder if he could get her something defensive at some point.


    ¡°Well, it shouldn¡¯t be long,¡± Janik commented to get Sam¡¯s focus before he continued. ¡°It¡¯s an arena-style fight. There are a few other creatures you need to kill in there, but once they are dead you disturb the crown, the Brine Colossus will wake up.¡±


    ¡°The Brine Colosus?¡± Sam asked, prompting Janik to explain more.


    ¡°It¡¯s a massive humanoid of rock and coral, then it¡¯s not too different from any golem except underwater and coral?¡± Sam summarized.


    ¡°Yeah... kinda,¡± Janik agreed to the abstractification. ¡°A bit weirdly put but it¡¯s not wrong. When we enter we¡¯ll be underwater the whole time, the next problem is that the emergency exit function won¡¯t work there. This is true for most of the Dungeons here on the Third Floor but we¡¯re somewhat skipping them.¡± Janik smiled surprisingly satisfied as they walked.


    Sam stopped himself from replying with arrogance, he couldn¡¯t help but feel that things would go well and be easy, but... getting too arrogant was how a lot of Players found their swift end.


    Before he knew it, they had arrived at the bottom of the island, the walk to the water''s edge still took some time, even if the man-made roads made it faster and easier.


    ¡°You can wait around here if you want, or you can come with us to the end of the pier,¡± Sam stated to Elara.


    ¡°I¡¯ll wait around here, I can swim but I don¡¯t want to hunt underwater.¡±


    Sam nodded, this made sense to him. Snakes were often surprisingly good swimmers but it would probably not be the same. He crouched down and let her use his arm as a bridge to the ground. ¡°That¡¯s fine, we¡¯ll pick you up on the way back.¡±


    Slithering down to the ground she stopped on the way towards the tree line before turning around with an odd snake-smile. ¡°Good luck.¡±


    She disappeared into the foliage right after.


    The others continued onto the pier, it was like most piers Sam knew about on Earth, a concrete platform with metal railings. The walk to the end was surprisingly uneventful. No people, a few birds and the odd underwater creature swimming in the depths, but nothing came to the surface and nothing affected them.


    If nothing else, it was a pleasant walk.


    Finally getting to the end they found themselves standing at a large circular area with a hole in the middle. The hole was fenced in except on one side where stairs were going into the water. Some signs pointed down with some information about this being the End dungeon of the Third Floor. The information also repeated what Janik explained about the no exit and the process of how to manage the dungeon, referring to the guide app.


    One of the signs explained that the circle was placed directly above the entry portal, which was straight down by the entrance of a cave, they would have to swim for a short while to get there.


    Crouching down and feeling the water, Janik shook his hand to get most of it off as he got back up. ¡°The water¡¯s not too bad, should we just go right away?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t see why not,¡± Sam replied, taking out his mask and making sure it was charged up. Doing the same for Dia. ¡°If everything goes well we might be out of there in an hour.¡±


    Getting ready and jumping into the water, they made their way down. Sam decided to help them on their way to speed up the process, he had 84 hands now, after all, so it was an easy thing to divide them up. They could talk through the masks so it wasn¡¯t a problem letting them know and pulling them down.


    It didn¡¯t take much time for them to end up at the ocean bottom. If Sam had to guess they were around 30 floors down. It became incredibly dark at this depth, light was consumed by the water and most colour had faded.


    ¡°This was much further down than expected, I wonder how they found it originally,¡± Janik explained as Sam despawned the Psyhands of him.


    ¡°Probably just thousands of players swimming about and someone happening on it?¡± Sam didn¡¯t see any other good ways of doing this, as the portals were hard to see from a distance, even in the air. And now they floated in front of the shallow cave with a weird haze in the opening. A standard Dungeon entrance.


    ¡°Dia,¡± Sam started as he turned towards her. ¡°You don¡¯t need to come if you don¡¯t want to, since we can¡¯t exit, in case some-¡± Sam wanted to give her a chance to wait, since she was a Companion tied to Sam, she didn¡¯t need to risk herself in the Dungeon, but he was interrupted.


    ¡°Dia coming!¡± She replied as if it was an order, with no option to discuss.


    Sam expected this kind of answer, he just felt that he should give her the option. ¡°I suppose we enter, then?¡±


    ¡°Yep, no need to wait,¡± Janik answered as he swam over to the entry portal, Sam and Dia following.


    The familiar window opened, and seconds after they disappeared in a white flash.