Samantha’s combat shadow appeared unbidden, and I immediately resigned myself to following it.

I had barely held my own against the velociraptors outside Hiver Town. I wouldn’t stand a chance against these well-trained scouts who were each higher leveled than me and had far more experience.

The first thing Samantha had me do was run backwards at a slight angle, add some Dexterity, and throw one of my knives with my left hand.

The dust, mixed with the mist, made it hard for me to see, which meant they must be having a harder time than me.

It was a disconcerting feeling, running backwards in a tunnel, especially since I wasn’t running in a straight line. As messed up as Samantha was, I knew she wouldn’t make me run into a wall. Her tricks tended to be a bit more subtle.

A knife flew passed me, grazing my shoulder, and I bit my tongue.

I threw my second knife into the mist, unable to see if it landed.

Congratulation…

I ignored the rest of the announcement, glad that at least one of them had been killed.

Suddenly, the combat shadow rushed full speed towards the remaining scouts.

I was a little slow on the uptake, wondering what new hell Samantha had planned for me.

As I rushed towards the scouts, I saw a spell fly by me, impact the rock crystals above and slightly behind me, and then the whole world around me collapsed, the tunnel caving in on top of me.

I was slammed to the ground by falling rocks and crystals. I felt more pain than I had ever felt in my life.

Every inch of me felt bruised and battered, and I couldn’t see, breath, or move due to the thick clouds of dust around me.

I heard more shouting, and suddenly everything got worse. Even more weight fell on top of me, I couldn’t see anything, and I felt my leg snap as the weight pressed against it.

I could barely think, and as I opened my mouth to cry out in pain, I choked on the ever-present dust.

I put everything into Physical Defense, and waited in agonized pain. My Physical Defense was nearing 100, which granted me an impressive healing rate as well as toughness.

Then came a third spell—this time, the rocks around me shifted, grinding against my body cruelly.

If they were just rocks, then they wouldn’t be capable of hurting me with my current Physical Defense. However, mixed in between the rocks were incredibly sharp gems that shredded my battle robe and skin alike.

It felt like I was in slowly shifting whirlpool. My health was steady, but the pain was incredible.

I groaned in pain.

Don’t make a sound. As long as you make a sound, the magician will keep firing the spells. If you want, I can always remove the pain.

It was a familiar temptation, and it was one I had considered earlier, as well.

But I would never let Samantha touch my mind again.

I gritted my teeth, and focused on ignoring the pain that washed over me.

With one final explosion, all the dust and shards of rock and gems flew away, revealing three angry scouts directly in front of me.

Biding my time had its own benefits, though. Thanks to my Bloodied Battle Robe’s passive effect, I had regained some mana directly towards my Mana Pool.

The scouts didn’t know it, but I was on the clock. My insanely high Physical Defense would fade in just 10 more seconds.

I threw my knife at the magician, but she was watching me, and ready. A shimmering shield appeared in front of the magician. I threw my second knife at archer in the rear, forcing the archer to dodge, and buying me a few more seconds before the archer’s next shot.

Then I limped forwards. I quickly found my left leg was unable to support my weight, so my limp turned into a hop.

An arrow flew towards me, but I ignored it, letting it pierce my battle robes. To my surprise, despite my immense Physical Defense, the arrow buried itself in my stomach. Compared to the other pain I’d been feeling, to my surprise, the arrow didn’t hurt as much. and I continued my agonizing charge forward.

My knives reappeared in their sheathes, and I drew one, swiping at a knife flying my direction.

My whole body was trembling, unable to follow Samantha’s combat outline. I tried to deflect the flying knife, but my timing was off, and the knife sunk through my robes into my right shoulder.

I gritted my teeth and threw my knife, taking another unsteady step forward. The archer who was once again trying to nock an arrow was forced to dodge, buying me another second, as I grew closer.

The scout who had just thrown a knife at me drew a short sword and charged me.

This was the moment Samantha had been waiting for.

About twenty seconds had passed since I increased my Physical Defense. This meant I had regained 1/3 of my Mana Regeneration per minute—about 14 mana.

Increasing my own Agility with everything I had left, I tanked the scout’s swing, letting the sword slice into my arm, and then I stabbed my own sword, directly piercing the man’s heart.

I was in a mental state outside of my own pain, an adrenaline rush that allowed me to perform this sickening yet all-too-familiar movement.

For once, I felt no shock, no fear, no apprehension at what I was turning into.

Either I died, or they did. The imperial scouts had made that all too clear with their refusal to retreat.

I ignored the congratulatory message at the scout’s death, and glanced towards the magician.

The magician was now within arm’s reach, and she drew her own knife, casting a rock spear at my torso at the same time, but I ignored the rock spear, letting it graze off of my body. Then, in one fluid motion, I drew a dagger from my sheath, and stabbed the magician’s chest.

Level up!

I felt a familiar warmth surround my body, and all the pain finally faded. It was strange, leveling up so soon after my last level that I’d gained.

The last archer started running away, but there was a crystal golem approaching from the other end of the tunnel.

I jogged towards the archer, and just as he was dodging around the crystal golem, I saw the combat shadow throw a knife at the archer’s back. I paused for a brief moment. I didn’t want to kill someone who was running away…

Then I thought of Petra, and Justin, who could be caught by this archer. I added a bit of Dexterity and threw the knife, and it sunk directly into the man’s back.

Then, the two remaining crystal golems advanced towards me. No rest for the weary, I thought, readying my sword.

With Samantha’s combat shadow, the golems were easy to take care of. They were both bipedal golems, and I was able to target their legs enough that they could only crawl towards me, and then I decapitated them with heavy hacks of my Vampiric Blade.

Finally, I was alone in the tunnels and cave, surrounded by rather large piles of loot and blood.

Frankly, the loot was astounding. It set my heart racing, as I examined the loot they had dropped. It was also terrifying, if the Human Empire was able to equip a scouting team with this kind of equipment, what would they equip their soldiers with?

Each scout had dropped a full set of E-rank equipment and an E-rank Interdimensional Pouch—except for the magician, who held a D-rank Interdimensional Pouch. Instead of in interior of 5x5x5 feet, it had 50x50x50 feet. I immediately transferred my most important valuables to the D-rank pouch, and equipped that.

Each of the four pouches contained what could best be described as a survival pack. Health potions, general antidotes, mana potions for the magician, canteens that had a virtually endless supply of water, foraging kits, unappetizing, brown meal squares, Soul Shield Amulets, and E-rank personal Mana Shields like the ones that Lord Ignatius used before we killed him.

But that was just the mundane stuff. There were four copies of the same two skill books, one above each corpse.

Aquatic Respiration (E-rank): Allows you to breath water as though it is air.

Polyglot (E-rank): Allows for proficient communication in most languages.

I immediately learned both skills, since there were no class restrictions.

Additionally, each corpse was wearing one of these rings:

Alias Ring (E-rank): Allows you to create a modifiable, fake Status Window that you can share as your own. This ring has a concealment charm on it.

And that was just what the scouts had in common. Inside the Interdimensional Pouch belonging to the man who threw the knives at me, I found an Invisibility Cloak:

Invisibility Cloak (D-rank): Conceals your presence. Cost: 1 Mana Shard per hour.

Accompanying the cloak was a large pile of Mana Beads.

The knife-throwing man also dropped a class change tome and a skill book:

Assassin (E-rank Class): Grants Stealth Affinity (E-rank). +1 Dexterity/level. +1 Agility/Level.

Lock Picking (E-rank): Enables stealth-based classes to unlock doors. Requires Stealth Affinity (E-rank).

Lock Picks (E-rank): Can be used by someone with a Lock Picking skill to unlock doors.

And that was just one of the scouts.

The archer dropped an E-rank Archery class, a D-ranked bow, and two D-ranked skills, Piercing Arrow, and Life Sense. Life Sense allowed the archer to notice every creature in a 200 yard radius. Unfortunately, it was limited to classes with a focus on long-ranged weaponry.

The first man I killed, it turned out, was a mind reader.

Telepath (D-rank class): Grants Mental Power Affinity. Teaches Telepathy, Mind Reading. +4 Mental Power/Level.

And then there was the magician.

Earth Magician (D-rank class): Grants Earth Magic Affinity. Teaches Earth Manipulation. +2 Mana Pool/level; +2 Mana Regeneration/level.

How is this even possible? I asked Samantha in shock. This is way too much loot. I didn’t even realize that people could drop class and skill books from their own classes when they died! I didn’t even have elevated luck, so this doesn’t make any sense!

I pulled up the mission, reviewing it:

Renegade Bounty Hunter: Every unsanctioned being that you kill on Earth will give you additional experience and rewards.

I pulled up my Status Window. It took a second to find what Samantha was referring to, but once I saw it, I was completely floored.

Samantha said, smugly.

Name:

Jarek

Level:

24

HP:

34/34

Physical Defense:

18

Strength:

31 (+5)

Mental Power:

12

Dexterity:

10 (+5)

Agility:

10 (+20)

Perception:

20 (+2)

Luck:

11

Mana Pool:

75 (+10)

Mana Regeneration:

32 (+10)

Available Points:

1

Coins:

155,207,000

Class:

Mana Modulator (D-rank)

Profession:

Rune Master

(E-rank)

Titles:

Region Lord (E-rank)

Skills and Spells:

Identify (E-rank)

Mana Modulation (D-rank Core)

Death’s Defier (A-rank)

Mana Sensing (E-rank)

Healthy Magic (E-rank)

Don’t Mind Me (D-rank)

Aquatic Respiration (E-rank)

Polyglot (E-rank):

Affinities:

Internal Mana (D-rank Low), External Unattributed Mana (E-rank Low)

Equipment:

Vampiric Blade (D-rank): +5 Strength, +5 Agility.

Bloodied Battle Robes (D-rank): +5 Mana Pool, +5 Mana Regen.

Boots of a Feather (D-rank): +10 Agility.

Greedy Gloves (D-rank): +5 Mana Pool, +5 Mana Regen.

Bonded Blades (D-rank): +5 Dexterity, +5 Agility.

Goat Mask (D-rank): +2 Perception.

Interdimensional Pouch (D-rank):

Missions:

Zone Offense

Renegade Bounty Hunter