When Hunter received the familiar notification he returned to his sense of self. The feeling was weird. It was like he was waking up from a dream. His memories were muddled and his actions were fading into a half-remembered blur. He peered through his notifications to see what he had missed.

Congratulations! You have earned Running Lvl 8!

Congratulations! You have earned Sneak Lvl 5!

…

Congratulations! You have earned Sneak Lvl 7!

Congratulations! You have earned Sprint Lvl 9!

Congratulations! You have earned Sprint Lvl 10!

Congratulations! For reaching Lvl 10 in Sprint, you’ve unlocked the Path: Common Sprinter (0/10).

Congratulations! You have earned Dodge Lvl 10!

Congratulations! For reaching Lvl 10 in Dodge, you’ve unlocked the Path: Common Acrobat (0/10).

…

Congratulations! You have earned Dodge Lvl 12!

Congratulations! You have earned Pain Resistance Lvl 6!

Congratulations! You have earned Fire Resistance Lvl 6!

…

Congratulations! You have earned Fire Resistance Lvl 8!

Congratulations! You have earned Sword Mastery Lvl 6!

…

Congratulations! You have earned Sword Mastery Lvl 10!

Congratulations! For reaching Lvl 10 in Sword Mastery, you’ve unlocked the Path: Common Swordsman (0/10).

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your Active Skill: Meditation has evolved into the Active Skill: Battle Meditation. All Skill levels have been retained.

Battle Meditation (Lvl 5): Calm your mind and open your spirit in the heat of battle. While in the midst of meditation your regeneration rates for all base values will be doubled. Additionally, all attributes will experience greater synergy with each other. Higher levels will increase the potency of the effect.

Congratulations! You have earned Battle Meditation Lvl 6!

…

Congratulations! You have earned Battle Meditation Lvl 8!

Congratulations! Due to defeating an opponent more than 10 levels above you while under level 5, you have earned the Path: Monster Hunter (0/25).

Hunter took a deep breath as he looked over all of his notifications. His gains had been substantial to say the least. It was true that his skills leveled far faster when he was facing a life or death situation. Clearly the Archives rewarded actively fighting demonic forces. If all of his Paths provided stat gains that he could feel in his body, then he could see how completing Paths could become its own form of addiction. The power was incredible.

He frowned at the realization. It finally dawned on him why he was uncomfortable with committing to either cause. On one side, the Infernal Horde empowered him through worldly possessions. At least, that’s the way greed worked. He didn’t know how the other cardinal sins managed their followers. Regardless, it was an overt kind of influence. There was nothing subtle about its effects.

On the other side, completing Paths was like being addicted to some kind of narcotic. The rush he felt when he received large attribute bonuses was dizzying. On top of that, they seemed to get him even more abilities to level up for more Path points. The cumulative effect was enough to drive anyone to constant battle. If only to receive the sweet rush of power.

It was all the more insidious because there was nothing to actively oppose with his Willpower. Just knowing he had new paths was enough to make his mouth water. He already wanted to go find more enemies like the bear so that he could grind more skills. With the sun going over the horizon, he knew it would be disastrous to follow the impulse. It was better that he returned to the Sanctuary for the night.

He wanted to dig into his new Paths, but didn’t feel quite safe enough. He took a calculating look at the sky and decided that he needed to get back to the Sanctuary. It had taken him half an hour to reach his current position. It felt a little annoying that he didn’t get much done for the afternoon.

Well, Rome wasn’t built in a day and this Rift won’t be cleared in a night.

He checked the corpse of the bear for anything valuable but ended up finding nothing. He looked for the imps, but they hadn’t even left bodies behind. The explosion of fire had rendered them into floating piles of ash. He found pools of molten gold scattered on the ground, but he had already resolved not to upgrade his equipment until he learned what it took to withstand their influence. Sighing in defeat, he check out his equipment for any major damaged then set off at a jog.

He noticed the changes to his running almost immediately. It wasn’t only just his passive skill that had seen improvement, but his active sprinting as well. He felt more coordinated and efficient. Each stride was longer, his breath felt more even, and his equipment didn’t feel as heavy. Hunter felt like he had a literal spring in his step.

He checked his stamina bar and found that it was barely dropping from a light jog. When he activated Sprint, the small orb declined faster, but it still wasn’t anything to worry about. It was an appreciated effect from his new skill levels.

Without some form of transportation, he would be riding his chevrolegs everywhere. With an entire mountain to traverse, it would be worth leveling those skills further.

It took him only about twenty-five minutes to reach the Sanctuary. He had altered between sprinting and running the entire way. By the time he had arrived, his stamina was low, but he hadn’t even broken a sweat.

Man, my basketball coaches would be impressed. Well, maybe they wouldn’t.

Most of his coaches were military veterans. He was pretty sure they wouldn’t be impressed if he sprinted the length of the basketball court on his fingers and made three-pointers with his feet. They’d probably just crack jokes and tell him he should’ve joined the Navy seals.

Emphasis on the lower-case seal.

When he arrived at the battlefield in front of the Sanctuary he found a couple of imps poking around at the equipment. He felt a brief flash of greed. Just because he hadn’t used the weapons to upgrade is armor and weapons, didn’t mean he wasn’t going to in the future. He felt like a dragon whose hoard had been raided while he was away.

He slew the imps easily and then checked the sun again with his hands on his hips. If he was quick, he could gather up the remaining materiel and get it inside the Sanctuary. Trying to convince himself it was practicality and not greed whispering in his ear, he set about his task. It took him another hour to gather up all the discarded merchandise and get it indoors.

He stacked everything up by type inside the armory. When everything was accounted for, he was able to leave the room without incident. It seemed that his shallow thoughts of greed were enough to keep his greed-aspected armament happy for now. Still, being inside the room had made him want to pick a helmet to take with him on the next outing.

Surely, one more piece wouldn’t enthrall me to the Infernal Horde.

He sighed, I’ll do that later. I need to take a shower and then check my Paths.