"You're leaving again so soon?" Crusher asked Daz while she finished up polishing her sledgehammer.

Shortly after having decided on which of the two SS-ranked (Higher Tier) skills to use his free chance on, Daz had come to Crusher to tell her that he was leaving the base again and that she should be ready to come with him since she had asked him to tell her if he was going out again.

"Right," Daz nodded. "I need to go back to my home. There are a few things I need to collect."

'Not to mention, I have to do something to keep my mind occupied while I wait for Rimmy to be summonable again...' Daz had been trying his best to stay busy today, not only because he needed to get things in order, but because his heart was still hurt by Rimmy's absence.

"Well, I don't really mind, but who'll protect this place while we're both gone?" Crusher asked. Even if she wanted to stretch her legs and leave Fort Skip for a bit, she wasn't stupid. Crusher knew that only she and Daz were at a level that could adequately protect the place from most, if not, all threats currently.

"Lyle, Ger and Heather can handle things. After all, we have plenty of guns now. It should be fine to leave the base for a few hours. And just like with you, I'll be leaving a walkie-talkie with Lyle, so he can contact me if anything happens." Daz's words made sense to Crusher, so she nodded her head.

"Sure, gimme a few mins. I can't crush things unless Crusher is all clean, now can I? Hahaha!" Crusher claimed.

'She named her sledgehammer after herself? That's a bit odd,' Daz thought.

"Meet me at the outer gate. Take your time, I'm not in a rush." With that, Daz left and made his way to Lyle.

Daz then briefly explaining what he was going to do and got Lyle to promise to contact him immediately if something happened at Fort Skip during his trip home. Naturally, Lyle had voiced his opinion of wanting to come with Daz, but he was denied since Daz made it clear that he was only going to grab some stuff then return quickly.

Daz could see Crusher approaching him from the inner wall. She was wearing a tank top and a pair of camo baggy pants. What caught Daz's attention though, besides her sledgehammer that was strapped horizontally at the back of her waist, was her gloves.

A Kiss On The Face [S-Rank (Lower-Tier)] Description An item designed and created by the ex-professional Athlete, Crusher. It fully embodies her desire to 'kiss' people on the face with her fists. Stats Durability: 500/500 Strength: 70 Attack: 100 Grip: 200 Skills Uppercut Damage up Uppercut Rapidly punches the opponent in the face three times before performing an uppercut that deals 125% damage and concusses the target. (Subject to opponents resistances). Damage up All held weapons will do 10% more damage.

'Higher Identification.' Daz's curiosity over the pure white gloves had forced him to find out exactly what they were.

'Interesting! So I'm not the only one that realised that you could self-create items with the system... and S-Ranked... did she create it with a lower tiered reward? What rank would that be? System, can you tell me what rank Crusher has on the killing ranking list?' Daz asked while Crusher slowly walked towards him.

Confirmed. Displaying Citizen of the host's killing rank: 39,832.

'What? But that makes no sense! The reward I got for being in the top ten thousand was a free SS-Rank Middle-Tier skill, so going by the way it's worked so far, being in the top one hundred thousand might have given an SS-Rank Lower-Tier skill, but an item?... unless... system, is it possible to split up kill ranking rewards into more lower ranked rewards and for those rewards to be other things than just skill tokens?' Daz asked.

Confirmed. It is possible. Any middle-tier reward tokens may be split into two lower-tier reward tokens and any higher-tier reward tokens may be split into three lower-tier reward tokens or one middle-tier Reward token and one lower-tier reward token. It is also possible to exchange the token for a different type of token, for example, a Skill token to an Item token.

"Well fuck," Daz couldn't help but say.

He had never even considered this as a possibility. It would seem that Crusher was slightly more open-minded than he was. Not to mention, she must have at least one more middle-tier item or skill, or two lower-tier things, all in S-rank.

"Am I mentally challenged?" Daz asked himself while his chin rested in his hand. He was truly shocked that he hadn't considered this at all. It made sense when he thought about how useless the system was unless you asked it questions. In fact, most of his knowledge pertaining to the system, came from him asking it questions.

"HAHAHA! I don't know, Lord, are you?" Crusher laughed wildly from his side.

Snapping out of his thoughtful state of mind, Daz's face returned to its usual emotionless expression. "Sorry about that. I was just lost in thought. Well, ready to leave now?"

"What a weirdo, but that's why I like you. Sure thing Lord, I'm good to go whenever," Crusher replied with a cheerful grin. Nodding, Daz turned around and the two left Fort Skip.

Ger and Lyle were stood atop the inner rampart and watched the two pillars of strength leaving. "Lyle," Ger called while he sat down on a folding chair he had brought up to the wall.

"Yes, Ger?" replying lightly and with little interest, Lyle kept his gaze fixed on Daz and Crusher's figures.

"Who do think Daz was before all of this happened?" A distant look entered Ger's eyes. "He couldn't have been anyone normal, could he? The way his mind works and his... oddities. Just who was he before all of this began to have such a personality at his age?"

Lyle remained silent and only spoke after Daz was now out of sight. Turning to look at Ger, he opened his mouth. "I don't know. Does it particularly matter?"

"I... I'm not sure," Ger said with a frown.

Meanwhile, a few hundred feet away from the Fort, a burly man sat atop a hill in a full ghillie suit pulled a walkie-talkie out from his pocket as he set his sniper rifle aside. "This is Roger, reporting in. Over."

"News about the keep on the hill? Over." a voice toned back to Roger.

"Affirmative. Priorities Alpha and Beta have both left together. Now might be our chance. Over," Roger replied with a hint of excitement in his voice.

"Confirmed. I'll inform the General personally. Good job, Roger. Keep us updated if anything happens. Out." With that, radio silence was reestablished and Roger picked up his sniper rifle again and kept it pointed towards Fort Skip.