298

The number represented Rydr's current physical might. The figure caused his brain to stutter. The giant held the boulder away from him with relative ease.

Rydr's current strength score, without [Berserker's Rage], peaked at eight points higher than double the giant's normal strength score.

The sphere's once crushing weight settled easily against Rydr's palms. Even the regular pulses, which made the boulder heavier, barely registered to the giant.

The giant felt so relaxed that he [Inspected] the boulder.

Magi-Steel Ore Sphere

An enormous boulder of iron and magi-steel ore purified by the intense mana of the ancient Etherways. The anti-magic properties of Iron Ore let these massive spheres serve as a breakwater for Etherway surges.

· 90% Magi-Steel Ore

· 5% High-Iron Ore

· 5% Iron Ore

· 321,600 Kg.

Rydr pulse quickened when he discovered the plethora of ore at his literal fingertips.

Nonplussed, Rydr noted the description of the "ancient Etherways" before he dismissed it. The boulder's weight made it impossible for Rydr to store it and run away with the massive bounty.

But I want it. I want all of it.

There was one problem in his way.

I am about to die again.

*00:00:10:11*

Ten seconds remained in [Peerless Physique]'s duration. When the skill ran out, the giant's enormous strength buff would vanish, leaving him to be ground into a paste.

Half of Rydr's stamina slowly ticked up as his new strength allowed stamina regeneration to start again. While the giant watched the stamina bar go up, the boulder's weight started to become a problem again.

A crazy plan entered Rydr's brain. A niggling thought made the giant flip around. With his back presented to the boulder, Rydr let it smash into him, stiffly sliding a meter. It nearly knocked his breath out, but Rydr still managed to gasp for air.

Then Rydr pulled his pickax out. The weapon appeared in his hands as the blood-drenched giant braced against the boulder.

Common Pickax Level 1

Simple mining implement. It is more effective against stone.

· Bonuses:

o +5 Damage

o Double Damage to Lifeless Stone

· Weight: 2kg.

· Durability: 90/100

The second bonus listed on the simple tool gave Rydr hope to live. If it functioned the way, he hoped. Time bore down on his shoulders, so Rydr started his "plan."

The giant crouched down and wedged himself slightly under the boulder, like Urginok before him. Then, in a half-crouch, Rydr kicked/squatted off the ground as hard as he could. The stone beneath both feet splintered as he kicked back.

In the same instant the giant kicked off, Rydr activated [Berserker's Rage]. His body flushed as the skill took hold and forced Rydr to start steaming.

Rydr calculated his new strength score in his head. With the sudden boost, the giant's new score, combining all of his current abilities, capped at 359.

This was the absolute limit of Rydr's power right now.

His bones felt like they might shatter in the skin while quadriceps burst through the seams of Rydr's jeans. Behind and under the colossus, hidden from even his synesthesia's mindscape, the well-over 300-ton boulder lifted off the ground by a centimeter.

Then, grinding his teeth hard enough to taste blood, Rydr fully extended his legs and heaved the boulder off his back. The counterforce from the enormous rock kept Rydr from falling on his ass and let him turn around to face the death-trap.

Even with his new score, Rydr only forced the boulder a meter away from him. Then it started to roll forward while Rydr stood his ground and activated [Break Flurry].

Then and there, Rydr discovered what his teammates found out earlier. Skills empowered your movements with conditional effects but never assisted you in actually using them.

The feeling was akin to an old habit. Like riding a bike, once the skill was yours, the diver never "forgot" how to use them.

Just because a diver activated a skill didn't mean it would hit.

However, Rydr felt the roll of energy passing through his body, the same feeling he had when the giant fought Guile. It was there, ready to be used.

So Rydr swung for the fences.

The ogre-like diver's arms were so long that he stepped back to swing properly when combined with the half-meter-long weapon.

The tip of the pickax met the oblique side of the boulder. Instead of shattering the whole thing as Rydr hoped, the weapon dug in. The resistance hit, and the giant grunted as he forced the pickax all the way through the rock and out the other side, shoulders and back bulging.

His first hit dug a deep furrow into the boulder, creasing it horizontally in the front. Then Rydr reached the end of his wild swing before he brought the weapon to bear again.

The inhuman behemoth battled to reverse the swing of his pickax and strike the boulder again. Inertia really started to annoy Rydr the more he fought against it.

Somehow Rydr managed.

His second attack hit the boulder and blasted through, sending a shower of ore through the tunnel. Unfortunately, the boulder remained whole.

The ground under Rydr crumbled, unable to take the punishment from the colossus' extreme strength score. Despite the debris, Rydr never noticed. Instead of tripping, Rydr's feet ground the loose stone to dust.

However, Rydr left bloody footprints in his wake. His avatar's body endured the same punishments, and it wouldn't keep up with his muscles much longer. Blood showered the tunnel every time the monster swung his pickax, flung off his body with every movement.

The third and final attack from [Break Flurry] landed on the boulder. This time, combined with his previous attacks, the boulder's front face fell off in a long sheet, like ice from a glacier. A fourth of the sphere sloughed away.

*00:00:06:04*

The collapse forced Rydr to jump back. With the bonus from [Springform], the giant hopped backward four meters, mindful not to make an orbital leap. The sheet of ore crushed into the tunnel floor, scattering small boulders everywhere, which almost tripped up Rydr. The avalanche of stone buried his legs to the knee.

For a brief moment, Rydr stood in front of an actual wall instead of a sphere. Then the boulder was hit by another magic pulse. The enormous ball, now a snowglobe on its side, rolled forward onto its new flat face.

The boulder's weight slammed into the tunnel floor, shaking the tunnel and sending a cascade of falling stalactites to the floor. Between the pulse and its own momentum, the new snowglobe of ore slid forward several meters, forcing Rydr to dance back.

The maneuver dragged Rydr's calves through the stone shards until his health bar nearly drained.

A chill ran down Rydr's left side. Panicked, the colossus lashed out.

Rydr knocked away a falling stalactite, the smaller stone exploding satisfyingly, and stared at the now-still boulder. Ore littered the slope around him, some pieces as tall as his hip.

The giant's heart raced with adrenaline. Rydr absently patted his chest to help calm himself.

I don't know that I'll ever get used to almost dying.

Another notification chimed in Rydr's head, but he habitually pushed it to the side.

*00:00:00:00*

A wave of weakness swept over Rydr when [Peerless Physique] ended. In the same moment, Rydr's stamina abuse caught up to him, and his yellow bar hit zero. The steam, the tell-tale effect of [Berserker's Rage], ceased to rise from Rydr's body as the skill automatically ended and began its cooldown.

Rydr possessed more than enough mana to abuse the magic spells he held. However, he couldn't say the same for his stamina. [Peerless Physique] might not cost stamina, but I can't strain myself and use my physical skills simultaneously.

Rydr bit back his frustration as the delirium from stamina-deficit sent him reeling. Caught in the stamina deficit, the giant wobbled and fell when the low-health delirium hit him simultaneously.

The combined effects were deadly. Rydr fell unconscious in front of the destroyed trap.

*****

Rydr paced around the tunnel, stuffing as much ore as possible into his storage space.

There has to be a way to increase stamina or mitigate the ability costs. If Rydr wanted to follow through on his vision, he needed to find a way. Otherwise, physical classes were laughably outgunned by Mages.

The game's clock clued Rydr in a few minutes ago. Nearly fifteen minutes passed while the giant was unconscious.

When he woke up, a notification forced its way onto his HUD. It told him that the combined effects of low health and low stamina forced his body into a weakened state. Rydr's monstrous regenerative abilities, for a level four, battled to keep his avatar alive under the weakening effect.

The slumbering giant only woke when his avatar healed enough. The muscle strain destroyed ligaments, fractured bones, and tore muscle fibers during his struggle. The cumulative damage to his avatar was real.

Which immediately gave Rydr ideas about how to fight large groups of enemies.

Nevermind the weakened state. Avoiding that is a no-brainer.

The real gift the game handed to him was information. Two key pieces of information would help Rydr on his journey.

The first was that crippling injuries, like missing chunks of flesh from his calves, shut down passive healing.

Just like in real wars, injured comrades were more of a hindrance than dead ones. Although it was cruel, "mercy killings" occurred throughout the history of combat.

Sure, magic-types will be able to cast healing spells. But how much mana can they really have? Will the magic focus on missing body parts first? Will that "eat up" the spells?

The ramifications of this hidden "status-effect" would rock the professional gaming world.

No resource was infinite. [Frontier Online] just added another dimension to the supply line.

More and more, the game mystified Rydr. It was too real. It seemed like this world was the same as reality, with a different set of rules, down to the last detail.

However, the fact remained that it was a game-world, with a system, superpowers, and magic races.

The second, more important- to Rydr- piece of information was that the behemoth couldn't handle his own strength. While his avatar was roided-up on all Rydr's buffs, the giant gave himself osteoporosis.

His bones broke, trying to endure 358 points in strength.

This signaled the end of his journey. Rydr intended to pursue pure strength, never diverging and placing points elsewhere. If his Constitution growth stagnated, then there was a real "cap" to his strength score.

The reality was that if Rydr threw a punch and snapped his back like a dry twig, he was useless. The future of a pure-strength build sobered the enormous diver.

Maybe I could modify [Reinforcement] to target strength and constitution-

Rydr shook his head to dispel the thought. Even though the spells helped him out of a dangerous situation, he still idolized the image of a pure-force warrior. A hybrid build failed to capture his imagination.

He never wanted to place points into his magic stats. Somehow, Rydr's lackluster approach to magic felt like a disservice to the magic system itself. He believed that "branching" out without the intent to commit was worse than never committing at all.

Rydr resolved himself to find an answer to his problem. Since magic was out of the question, based on Rydr's self-imposed principles, he needed to discover or create a solution.

The giant puzzled over the issue while he continued to store ore. Rydr flung the broken pieces into his storage space quickly, in a hurry to find his friends.

Eventually, he ran out of loose ore to grab, so he hefted the pickax and laid it into the giant sphere. Rydr broke the boulder into three massive pieces, the sound of a pickax rang through the tunnel. The effort was strenuous without his various buffs.

Absorbed in his thoughts, Rydr never stopped to wonder why he could hold so much heavy ore. As soon as it entered his storage space, the weight vanished.

Unknown to Rydr, his strength score, and natural size, provided a "shadow" buff to his storage space.

The colossus managed to grab half the boulder's original bulk before the game system warned him about over-encumbrance.

Over 150 tons of ore filled his storage space.

Disappointed that he couldn't hold more, Rydr started to search for his teammates. The dismantled debris left from the original boulder littered the tunnel behind him.

The tassels of shredded material rubbing on his bare legs warned the giant that his pants, although they still covered the jiggly bits, were ready to give up the ghost.

Even with no one around, Rydr blushed furiously. His near-nudity screamed against the giant's body-dysmorphia.

He was desperate to find some clothes before he found his teammates. Rydr glanced into his inventory.

[Alpha's Pelt]

Since he remembered the wolves from before, Rydr dug through his storage space and pulled out the Alpha's pelt.

Somewhere in the mix of wolf materials, Urginok gathered, Rydr collected the huge piece of fur and skin.

Although it was untreated and still had raw flesh on the underside in most spots, Rydr threw the giant pelt around his shoulders. The imprint of the monster's skull morphed the pelt's shape so that Rydr could throw a grotesque "hood" over his head if he wanted to.

Still, it counted as "clothes" because Rydr could wrap it around his body while it draped to his calves. Satisfied, if nauseated, with the results, the giant tied the "arms" together under his chin and searched for his team.

He wandered for what had to be a couple of kilometers in total darkness, trailing his hand on the walls. The tunnel branched away a few times in the interim, where Rydr paused to listen before he moved on.

Every few meters Rydr would flare his [Third Eye] skill. The ambient mana in the tunnel, which Rydr noticed was getting thicker the deeper he went, provided a beautiful light show.

The diver enjoyed the sight but used the skill to provide light for himself.

For some reason, when Rydr tried to message his team or the streamer he met before, the option was greyed out. Something about the tunnels restricted communication to shouting distance.

As he continued to wander through the tunnels, Rydr heard a familiar sound behind him. Rydr's chest tightened when he recognized the high-pitched growl of goblins. It seemed to come from all around now.

Rydr stood in a large crossroads inside the tunnel, where it branched down six paths. The floor formed an enormous bowl inside the chamber Breaths heaved in and out as he searched for a place to hide. There was nowhere, and he didn't want to take off running and get hopelessly lost.

Plus, Rydr needed to constantly use [Third Eye], which depleted his mana aggressively if he wanted to run. Since health and stamina had a negative effect when they ran out, it followed that mana would too.

Effectively drunk and helpless appealed to Rydr less than standing his ground.

Then, like an explosion in his mind, Rydr looked up. The giant activated [Third Eye] to outline the surface of the tunnel's ceiling. The ancient tunnel was covered in huge stalactites- some of them very close together.

Rydr jumped without hesitation, aiming for a set of stalactites. He flubbed his jump, and, slamming into one of his targets, the giant tried to hug the stalactite.

The stone's surface was rough and uneven, which allowed him to grip. Then Rydr's weight settled onto his fingertips and their grips. The stone under Rydr's hands crumbled. After all the enhancements to the giant's physique, he weighed over 250 kilograms.

It was too late to hide anywhere else. After Rydr slipped, he heard the goblins enter the chamber below him.

With no choice, Rydr tightened his grip on the stone, digging his fingers in hard. Still, he slipped again.

Rydr's heart jumped back and forth between his throat and stomach as he activated [Berserker's Rage]. His 145 in strength rose to 174 in an instant.

But, the skill made Rydr sweat.

The goblins stopped directly below Rydr since he jumped nearly straight up from the chamber's center. They milled around, waiting for their leader, who waited for his orders to come from a straw doll in its hands.

Rydr's fingers started to crack the boulder as he sweat more, from natural causes and unnatural. Despite his best effort, Rydr slipped again, his fingers dragging bloody streaks on the stone.

In a rush, Rydr forced himself to cast [Reinforcement] and [Empower] simultaneously. Scared out of his wits, the giant failed to cast [Consume] and had to draw purely from his core. The 37.5% dumped itself into his strength, raising it to 239.

Now that he was in a slightly- calmer situation, Rydr noticed the creak in his joints as his strength ramped up. It wasn't enough to drain his health, but it was definitely there.

With both buffs, sans [Peerless Physique], Rydr managed to stop his descent after a few centimeters by digging his entire hand in the side of the stalactite. His new strength got away from him and cracked the huge stalactite around its middle.

Pebbles rained down on the goblins. A couple turned around, looked at their comrades, and picked up a stone from the ground only to hurl it at the other's head.

Even as a fight broke out below him, Rydr couldn't see it. The rough stone pressed against his face as he panicked harder. Adrenaline raced through him, making Rydr tighten up on the stalactite.

The farther his hands dug into the stone until his forearms vanished, the more the rock broke from the ceiling. Rock continued to fall onto the goblins, eventually clueing them in, but it was too late.

The leader looked up from its straw doll.

The stalactite Rydr squeezed in a mighty bear hug broke from its base, leaving a stone spear 1.5 meters in diameter. The stone and its giant companion fell straight down onto the leader and the two goblins directly next to it.

The tip of the stalactite split the leader like a burst watermelon as it fell through him. Rydr fell on his hands and knees as the stone splintered under him, and he fell through the stone.

The goblins caught under the stone burst into light, although their items were trapped under the rubble. That was the least of Rydr's concerns.

Another three goblins surrounded the giant, recovering from the shock of his entrance. For a brief moment, while they studied each other, Rydr saw his stamina bar flash.

Rydr bit off a curse and ended [Berserker's Rage] before it drained his stamina to zero. The game was merciless, using stamina for physical fatigue and skills. Without the physical buff, Rydr's strength dropped to 199, relying on the spell's effects.

One of the goblins recovered enough to lunge at the crouched giant with its serrated shortsword.

Even though the creature barely stood at waist height for Rydr, he pretended no illusions at winning this fight. He jumped.

When Rydr kicked down into the rubble, his foot slid back and from underneath him, taking his heart with it. The colossus sprawled face down in the rubble, arms akimbo, inadvertently dodging the goblin's attack. Disoriented, Rydr spat out rocks and thrust his arms into the rubble.

At arm's length, Rydr whipped his head up to look for the next attack. The goblin immediately in front was mid-attack, its serrated blade centimeters from the giant's face when an arrow whistled through the air into its left temple.

Behind Rydr, another arrow stopped the second goblin in its tracks. Rydr whirled to track the first goblin's path, but a familiar back and call obstructed his view.

"Get up!" Urginok shouted at Rydr.