At the very least, the ogres weren’t too fast. The waves of fire spreading towards Allen and Ty as they ran were faster, yet still not quite fast enough to catch either of them. They could probably move a little swifter if they needed to, but Ty had to pace himself.

The only danger was the ogre chieftain, which was managing to chase after them. Though it was slowly gaining ground, the monster was probably running entirely on strength rather than endurance. It probably couldn’t keep up for much longer, especially with its enormous morning star.

The regular ogres had fallen far behind. They were simply all strength and no endurance.

The pyrokinetic ogre had lost control of its fire rather soon after it had spread throughout the grassy plains. This allowed Christopher to effectively divert the flames behind Allen and Ty to cover their retreat.

The Ogre Chieftain roared again, the cry carrying some form of fear effect with it. Allen could certainly feel the magic, and it did get through his defenses, it just had no effect on him. Even if he hadn’t already been running away, Allen felt he could have dealt with it easily.

He wiped the soot from his watery eyes and looked over at Ty. The man’s face was pained and exhausted, which was completely expected given the fact that their stats were still well within the realm of what a normal human could achieve with casual training.

It varied between stats, but Allen believed that the superhuman threshold for the endurance stat was around fifty. At that point one would exceed what even the most intensely trained, Olympic-level endurance athletes could manage.

Ten, on the other hand, was about at the level of a typical teenager who ate right and walked to school. Allen thought for a moment, and then placed Ty’s endurance somewhere between twenty and twenty-five. It was the most important stat for a defender, so he must have already increased it some.

As for the strength stat, a six was scrawny, and considering the fact that Allen could barely bench forty-five kilos (~100lb), that seemed accurate. Somebody like The Rock, on the other hand, would probably end up with a base level strength upwards of forty, and he wasn’t even the strongest.

The other stats were a bit more nuanced and dependent on the individual, especially wisdom. Allen couldn’t really place anyone on a scale for the mental ones. Though he was certain that normal people tended to have painfully low focus, often no higher than ten. Maybe a chess player or an elite sniper would have focus around fifty. It was fun to think about, at least.

Allen nearly tripped on a tuft of grass, startling him out of his thoughts. He chuckled to himself. He was zoning out while running for his life from a four-meter-tall behemoth ogre and its minions. Fire was licking at his back and he had no idea where he was going, yet he was still relatively calm, happy even.

“Like the good ol’ days,” he thought with a smirk, “Actually, the good ol’ days make this look like a walk in the park.”

Christopher’s magic was directing the two still-conscious fighters around the camp and back towards the grove of trees. It would probably be large enough for them to escape danger long enough to heal and level up, but they could always flee to the town if needed. They had certainly gotten a lot of experience points but fighting while under-leveled like they were wasn’t very sustainable.

Allen quickly looked over his shoulder but only saw fire behind spreading out behind him and smoke obscuring the sun. The roars of ogres were fading into the distance, but the lack of messages in his brain indicated that they weren’t out of the battle yet.

The magical pull on Allen and Ty steered them into the woods a short while after reaching it. They continued running, though at a slower pace than before. The fire wasn’t following them anymore, and the smoke was likely covering their scent.

“Flawless escape,” Allen congratulated. “We got out mostly unscathed and nobody died. What more could I ask for?”

Ty was really starting to reach his limit though. Camila was still unconscious on his shoulder, severely burnt and bruised. Thankfully, her denim jeans and pleather jacket had stood up well against the fire. She definitely didn’t need to be unconscious and naked, that was never a good combo.

Finally, after nearly a minute of running around in the woods, Allen and Ty met up with Christopher and Amelia on the opposite side of the grove near the edge of the shallow valley. Ty stumbled up to the Healer and dropped Camila on the ground before collapsing beside her.

“There they are,” Christopher said.

If Amelia was upset at the sight of Camila’s and Ty’s condition, she didn’t express it. Her face was solid as she wordlessly knelt down and started healing Camila first. Allen was quite impressed by her composure; he was sure it was more than just stability. The severe, third degree burns of the Berserker were not pretty to say the least. Any normal person would have been sick or horrified.

“She’ll be fine,” Amelia said after a few seconds. “She’s still has like… a third of her HP.”

Allen nodded. He was in much better condition than the other two, so he simply stood back and let Amelia heal them. Granted, he did have burns on his back, but the pain was easily manageable.

What he was more concerned with was the kill and level messages. They would only show up when the System deigned him to be ‘out of danger.’ Thus, they tended to be a good indicator of when he could rest. Allen sighed as they finally came up all at once. Christopher’s and Ty’s faces both visibly twitched at that same moment.

Your group has defeated 7x Ogre (Assorted) – Level 14 - 20

Your contribution: 88% Damage

For fighting 57 enemies in a team of 5, you receive an 11% XP bonus!

Awarded: 3229 XP

Congratulations, you are now level 5.

Requirements met: 1286 XP

Awarded: 5 Stat points – 1 Skill point.

Congratulations, you are now level 6.

Requirements met: 1545 XP

Awarded: 5 Stat points – 1 Skill point.

Allen sighed again and threw all ten points into strength, immediately feeling nimbler and more roguish. Still, he was a bit disappointed. Leveling was just so slow without any bonuses. The ‘group of enemies’ bonus didn’t really start to shine until one faced hundreds of enemies at a time. Even then, one would have to face those enemies alone to get the full bonus.

The problem was that none of these low leveled monsters would have given him a bonus for anything. There was nothing special about them and Allen didn’t have any particularly special ways of killing them yet. Unfortunately, there was no ‘one hit kill’ bonus, but there was one for a ‘passive kill.’ The enemy would have to be completely docile though, and the ogres weren’t.

“At least I leveled at all,” Allen thought, pursing his lips. “Those level thirty ogres will be good. We should definitely try to kill them before leveling up any more.”

With that though, Allen turned to his skill points.

Skills available to job: Assassin

Tier 1 – Active: Slip Step – Category: Martial Arts – Quickly evade with superhuman movements befitting an assassin.

Tier 1 – Passive: Dead Calm – Category: State of Mind – Become like a true assassin: Dead inside.

Tier 1 – Passive: Killer Instinct ­– Category: State of Mind – Estimate the success of your moves before you make them.

Tier 1 – Passive: Disappear – Category: State of Mind – Regulate your body and your mind to become harder to perceive when staying still.

Tier 1 – Meta: Piercing – Category: Enhancement Magic – Piercing attacks partially ignore enemy resistance.

“Oh boy,” Allen muttered to himself. “Am I really gonna have to choose between Dead Calm and Killer Instinct.”

“Hm?” prompted Amelia. She looked up at Allen with a relaxed smile as her magic continued to mend Camila’s burnt and blistered face. The Berserker was looking much better already, but there were still parts of her flesh that were peeling and covered in puss.

“Oh, just some skills,” Allen replied. “I have two points but both skills each need two points to be useful.”

Amelia steadily moved on to Camila’s burnt out eyeball with a nod. “It is what it is,” she said. “… So, um… What do they do? The skills I mean.”

Allen thought of the skills he was considering. Both were rather basic, but he was level six, so it was to be expected. “Well one is the Assassin equivalent of the Berserker Rage skill,” he began, then quickly continued when he noticed Amelia wrinkle her nose slightly. “Except it has the opposite effect and makes me calmer.”

Amelia considered her response for a moment, “…And a better killer?” she asked dimly. Her smile turned downwards as she looked back at Camila.

“That’s kind of the whole point, so why do I feel so bad about it?” Allen screamed at himself internally. “I guess,” he said aloud.

“What about the other one?” Christopher questioned, putting himself into their chat.

“Oh, it gives me highly limited premonitions about some of the actions I take. Like how much danger I’ll put myself in if I do this, or how much damage I can deal if I do that,” he said, waving his hand absently. He specifically left out the fact that the skill was called “Killer Instinct.”

“I like that one better. It sounds like it can keep you safe,” Amelia said. She stood up from Camila and smiled brightly, not letting the gloom of her two injured teammates get to her.

Allen’s heart twisted. “Man, I wanted Dead Calm... She’s really cute though… Ah, fuck it.”