Why were the Imperial scouts carrying 150,000,000 coins? Or is that another bonus that the Schema gave me for killing them?

I still hated Samantha. She had essentially stripped my mind and tried to kill this version of myself. But that didn’t mean we couldn’t have a working relationship when both of our lives were on the line.

This week had been a roller coaster of emotions. The latest flavor was that I was currently completely floored.

One million coins could buy a D-rank item. I could buy one hundred and fifty D-rank items with my current funds. Huh. That didn’t actually sound that impressive.

One hundred and fifty million coins. Just for killing this team of scouts. Yes, I had almost died, but at the same time, it wasn’t the most dangerous battle that I had been in. But the rewards were far greater than any other battle.

Samantha continued,

Since they were renegades, I thought back.

I was tempted to ask what to do with the wealth, but I bit my tongue. I could figure it out myself.

The same was true for the Stat Point I had gained. I needed to get used to making decisions for myself. I put the Stat Point into Mental Power. From when she first appeared in my head, Samantha had been downplaying Mental Power. At first, she ignored it, essentially pretending it didn’t exist. Then, she said she could replace any need for Mental Power. It was likely she was hiding something. Even if it helped me do exactly what Samantha does, I wouldn’t mind figuring out a way to replace her.

After putting the point into Mental Power, I realized that, since my Mana Pool was now full, I could resume keeping my floating points in Luck as well.

Surveying all the loot I had collected, the only disappointment was that besides the underwater breathing skill, and the language skill, I couldn’t learn any of the other skills, since they could only be used by people with specific Affinities and classes.

But maybe these could make up a good apology gift. A sign of good intentions to the people I had wronged?

Thanks to the four additional Interdimensional Pouches, carrying things wasn’t a concern. The only catch was that I wouldn’t be able to access the contents of any pouches, until I equipped that pouch. And Samantha made it clear that I should not, under any circumstances, put one Interdimensional Pouch inside another Interdimensional Pouch.

After dealing with the scouts’ loot, I finally turned to the crystal golems’ loot.

The crystal golems dropped numerous Mana Beads, and various jewels, but Samantha urged me deeper into the cavern, towards the flower that grew from a small rock island in the center of the pond.

I hadn’t spent much time studying it, before. Being distracted by the scouts and crystal golems. The flower itself looked like a white rose, except the jagged, gleaming edges gave it a crystalline appearance. A quick Identify revealed its predictable name:

Crystal Rose (D-rank)

And what, the moment I do, a crystal dragon will appear and destroy all the tunnels, killing Petra and Justin?

Samantha replied.

I’m not here to fight random monsters, and I don’t have time to waste. I just want to find Petra and Justin.

I headed towards the right-most tunnel. But just a few seconds after I turned my back on the Crystal Rose, I heard a light, clinking sound.

I spun immediately, and I saw a crab the size of a dining room table emerging from the water. It was a deep purple color, and the shell had various crystalized minerals growing from it. It had an incredibly sturdy and heavy look, but it moved nimbly.

The moment I turned and saw it, it immediately rushed towards me. It waved its massive pincers at me angrily, and for a brief moment I had a flashback to Mr. Krabs.

Skip the combat shadow, I thought to Samantha. I need to try this on my own.

The Atropos Schema required that you learn how to fight to defend yourself. I was tired of relying on Samantha. And how hard could fighting a Crystal King Crab be?

That said, I wasn’t going to approach this with overconfidence. The pincers looked incredibly dangerous, and I didn’t want to get caught.

I started by putting 25 mana into Physical Defense, and then 25 mana into Agility. Then, I rushed towards the crab, trying to imitate Samantha’s zig-zag rushing pattern that she would sometimes have me follow.

As I rushed towards it, the crab actually backed away slightly, and I realized how hard it was going to be to predict its movements. The crab was perfectly comfortable moving backwards or sideways, while still facing me.

Even though it moved unpredictably, I was still faster than it. I rushed forward, slicing the Vampiric Blade at the nearest leg.

To my surprise, my blade bounced right off the shell of the creature’s leg.

I immediately put 20 more points into Strength, but as I did, the crab jumped me.

I dodged backwards, but I was caught off guard. I had imagined a bit more probing from the crab, but instead, it charged directly ahead, rushing towards me with full abandon.

Even as I backed away, the crab’s front legs wrapped around me in a very uncomfortable hug, and then the crab’s left pincher grabbed my right wrist in a tight vice.

The crab squeezed my wrist, and judging from the pressure, it I felt like it was trying to slice of my wrist.

At first, it felt like a firm handshake that I couldn’t escape. Then, the pressure grew, and it felt like a gradually crushing pressure.

The pain was distracting and debilitating.

I drew a knife with my left hand, and frantically struck at the crab’s pincers. I scored deep gouges in the crystalized shell, but the crab made no effort to release my wrist.

Instead, it stabbed one of its legs directly towards me, trying to skewer my torso.

I dodged the leg, barely, my range of motion limited by my immobile right arm.

Meanwhile, the crab’s second pincer tried to catch my left arm as I continued to hack at its pincer.

Tears welled in my eyes, and I felt a burst of anger and fear.

Samantha provided.

It was obvious, in retrospect.

I yanked my wrist towards myself, pulling the crab’s pincer taut, and then I swung my knife full-force at one of the crab’s crooked joints.

My knife dug deeply through the pincer’s joint, about half way, before catching on the crab’s shell.

I yanked at my knife, but as I did, two more crab legs stabbed towards my chest.

My wrist was still trapped, and I didn’t have access to my knife. I tried to dodge, but the second leg adjusted course and stabbed my stomach.

My Physical Defense was nothing to sneeze at, still boosted by 25 points. But the crab’s leg threw me off balance, slamming my back to the ground. The rocks on the ground dug unpleasantly into my back. Then another leg pressed down on me, piercing through my battle robes and burrowing into my stomach.

“Fuck! Samantha!” The pain didn’t compare to being ground to pieces by an earth whirlpool, but I was done with the heroics.

I should have known from my battle with the velociraptors. I wasn’t ready to fight these creatures, and I couldn’t count on another convenient level up to heal any injuries.

I was trapped on two accounts—my wrist was gripped tightly, and my stomach pinned me to the ground.

I’d dropped the Vampiric Blade a few feet away, but due to my incredibly limited range of motion, I couldn’t reach it.

Samantha said.

As I did, I followed the combat shadow. My left hand grabbed my second dagger and sliced through the closest joint of the leg that was buried in my stomach.

The moment I was free, I started rolling my body towards the pincer that held my right wrist.

Another sharp leg landed right where I had been, cracking the rocks that had been under me.

I recalled the knife that was still buried in the joint of the crab’s pincer, and then I sliced off the crab’s pincer completely.

Just as the last bit of resistance faded, and the pincer fell to the ground, another leg stabbed my thigh.

It hurt, but it wasn’t enough to pin me. Rather than let the stab push me back, I twisted to the side, letting the crab’s full force of a stab carry it forwards, towards me, so that I was closer to the crab. I stood where the crab’s left pincer should be, and then I reached to the underside of the crab, and, trusting Samantha’s combat outline, stabbed hard.

The leg that had been about to stab me drooped, indicating that I must have somehow disabled that leg with my stab.

The crab snapped its remaining mincer at me angrily, but I was already moving underneath the crab.

With two legs and a pincer disabled, all on one side of the crab, there was space for me to dive underneath the crab—the underside of the crab was about three feet off the ground.

Then, Samantha had me put my back to the crab’s underbelly, crouching, low, and then with a grunt, I stood up forcefully.

Basically, I just did a back squat, and the 500+ pound crab was lifted off its feet and flipped in the air.

It was only then that I realized I hadn’t applied pressure on the center of the crab—I had lifted the left side of the crab, fast enough that it flipped over and landed on its back with a crack.

The crab immediately waved its pincers and legs, trying to right itself, but I—or, rather, Samantha’s combat shadow—wasn’t going to give it the chance.

Any leg that found useful traction was my first target. In just a few second, the crab was legless, and I had time to grab my Vampiric Blade, activating its health-stealing and mana-giving effect, and then I stabbed it deeply into the crab’s underbelly.

I collapsed to the ground the moment I received the experience and coins that confirmed the kill.

That was… pathetic.

My whole body was sore, again. My right wrist was probably sprained or fractured, my stomach had a gaping hole in it, and my back was shredded by the random gems that had been on the ground.

Out of the blue, I remembered something Samantha had said, during the tutorial: “The original version of you is pathetic. You probably even would have died going through the Easy Tutorial.”

I had assumed that was an exaggeration, to make me trust her more.

But judging from this performance, maybe it was true. Maybe Samantha had saved my life—without her, I might have died in the Tutorial’s Easy Mode.

I pushed the thought away. It didn’t matter whether Samantha had saved my life. She had also taken my very identity away from me.

This was a setback. But now I knew, at least, how far I had to go. Realistically, I couldn’t survive in these mines without Samantha’s combat shadow. But I would have to pay more attention to Samantha’s combat shadow, analyzing every step and move that she suggested.

Once my health was recovered, I collected the remaining loot.

Besides the Crystal King Crab’s corpse, there was also a town token that had appeared.

Samantha said.

The Imperial Scouts had provided me with several foraging kits. There were apparently hundreds of procedures and best practices when it came to collecting natural resources.

Of course, I had broken all of them when I collected the Yanir flowers.

If done properly, I would be able to replant the Crystal Rose elsewhere, allowing others to gain free Stamina Stat Points.

How long do you think it would take to dig out this Crystal Rose?

Samantha was silent for a while.

I don’t have time for that, I thought. I’m sure it’s still worth something if I just take it from the stem.

Samantha sighed audibly. .

I left the Crystal Rose in the cave, continuing deeper into the Veyrier Mines.