It felt like I was inside a virtual reality world. Without Samantha’s help, visually, everything would be just grey shadows moving around me, since my Perception stat wasn’t high enough to trump the illusion of darkness that the Sandman had created around the mountain.

In terms of Mana Sensing, without Samantha’s help, I would be seeing such a confusing mismatch of overwhelming and misleading white-gold mana that I wouldn’t be able to tell what was real.

But Samantha had kindly solved that problem, showing me a filtered feed of both Mana Sensing and my own vision, which allowed me to see the world—not in great detail, but enough to get by.

So far, I had all my floating points in Perception, and twenty points in Agility. The sandbagging plan wasn’t really working, apparently. I could already feel drowsiness kicking in from the sorcerer’s chanting, and if I let that continue, then I would likely fall asleep soon.

The moment I fell asleep, the Sandman’s would be able to control my dreams and somehow leech away my spirit, leaving me a puppet that the Sandman could control.

That wasn’t going to happen.

I poured another twenty points into Agility, and another twenty points into Strength, and I bulldozed through the cage that the Treants were forming around me.

Both of my wrists were more or less useless at the moment, from the single strike that I had been forced to block by the swordswoman.

Unfortunately, my aggressive attacks against the Treant cage seemed to allow the swordswoman to spot me.

She slashed her sword lightly, and a beam of martial energy flew from her sword directly towards me.

But I was ready for it, dodging it, and then ducking under the next wave of martial energy that flew towards me.

As I was dodging and rushing towards the sorcerer, I drew a health potion from my Interdimensional Pouch and started drinking it.

My wrists were in incredible pain—just lifting the potion was a challenge—but I drank it quickly, dodging yet another beam of the swordswoman’s martial energy.

As I did, I felt my body slowing down, complaining in exhaustion.

Samantha asked.

Fine. I thought. I had a feeling if I hadn’t decided halfway through the battle to pull my punches, this encounter would have gone very differently.

My wrists were already healing thanks to the health potion, and I put a few points into Dexterity, then I threw two knives—one towards the swordswoman, and the other towards the Sorcerer.

The woman with the large sword blocked the knife that flew towards her easily, but the dagger that targeted the Sorcerer slit his throat, and the sorcerer’s body fell to the ground.

That was easy, I thought, feeling slightly suspicious. Maybe the Sandman would raise the sorcerer from the dead, somehow.

With the sorcerer out of the way, I could turn my full attention towards the woman with the sword.

The way I saw it, it was almost as if she teleported. One moment, she was ten yards away from me, the next, she was right in front of me, with her blade moving at a frightening speed towards my chest.

It was the same accelerated movement skill that she had used earlier, and this time, Samantha was ready for it.

I added another forty points to Agility, taking my total Agility over 100, and I moved forward into the woman’s reach, drawing my two daggers from my sheathes.

Once I was inside the woman’s guard, I braced myself and used the dagger in my right hand to target a hole in the woman’s armor at her elbow—letting her arm swing towards my dagger, rather than directly attacking the woman’s arm.

Meanwhile, I stabbed the dagger in my left hand directly through the eye socket in the woman’s helmet.

The woman’s left had punched my chest just as I pierced her eye, and my whole body was once again flung backwards.

I felt several ribs crack in my chest, and my whole body was flung backwards and away from the woman.

My body rolled several times over the rocky ground, before I finally regained control of my own momentum.

Once again, the woman had pushed me towards the Treants. Several branches flew towards me once again, but I was already moving.

I ran towards the woman, hacking heavily as I did so, and I threw my second dagger, watching it pierce the woman’s helmet again.

I felt a moment of grief, looking at the bodies of the two former Hell-mode challengers.

Every Hell-mode challenger had the potential to be a powerhouse. It was a shame that two had died so easily—hopefully at the hands of the Sandman, and not at my own hands.

Samantha said.

I was about to check, when I realized, You could just be faking my wealth anyway. There’s no point in checking.

Samantha sighed.

The timer was the reason that Samantha and I had been sandbagging against the two Hell-mode challengers in the first place.

When I first broke the circle of Treants, I had been fighting only with my floating points—essentially, a battle that I could have continued indefinitely. But now that I had broken into my mana pool, my current elevated stats were on a 30 second timer, and then I would have to dip even deeper into my mana pool.

I rushed further up the mountainside, towards the cave that I knew held the Sandman.

Samantha said, suddenly.

Without Samantha as my eyes, I couldn’t imagine how I would have defeated this creature. Actually, I couldn’t imagine how anyone could defeat this creature. Even if it were all of Daybreak—how could they find this creature amidst a wall of darkness?

I ran up the mountainside, over 100 Agility along with my boosted Strength making the movements easier.

It didn’t take long before I could see the Sandman. It was the size and general shape of a bear, but instead of fur, it had lizard-like scales.

Mana Sensing showed that its insides glowed in gold and white, but with regular sight, it was a light brown color.

I only managed to catch a brief glimpse of it before it disappeared in a sea of other monsters.

There were Treants, Dire Wolves, Dire Rats, Parons, Saber-toothed foxes, and dozens of other monster species, all rushing to place themselves between me and the Sandman.

But I was once again under the cover of my Invisibility Cloak, and Samantha was guiding me with such precision that I rarely even had to touch a monster.

It felt like one of those racing apps on a phone, where you are rushing forwards, dodging from side to side to avoid the debris or blocks in your path.

Samantha was able to perfectly plan a path for me to take, and the monsters were unable to organize themselves to block off every path.

As I continued to run, I managed to catch sight of the Sandman once again.

I threw a knife, and to my surprise, it managed to sink deeply into the creature’s flank, drawing a significant amount of blood.

Then I threw the second knife, and watched it land once again in the creature’s other back leg.

The Sandman was running slower, now, with more of a limp.

I recalled both knives, and threw them again.

This time, they sunk into the Sandman’s torso.

I was less than 10 yards away from it, at this point, and it spun and dove towards me.

Samantha said, guiding me to leap backwards, into the swarm of monsters blocking my path behind me.

I barely avoided a swipe of a scaly claw.

Then I threw a knife again, this time, at its throat, and I continued to back away.

Even with the knife digging into its throat, the Sandman didn’t stop attacking me.

It rushed towards me, two massive, scaly arms with wickedly long claws swiping down at me.

I poured almost everything left into Luck, and then I stabbed the Vampiric Blade into the Sandman’s scaly, revealed chest.

Congratulations! You have slain Europe’s Zone Lord. +20 free Stat Points.

You have completed the mission, Zone Offense.

Reward: 1 Schema Treasury Token (C-rank)

Zone Offense mission updated: Slay another Zone Lord on Earth. Reward: 1 pick from the Schema Treasury (C-rank).

Level up!

Level up!

Level up!

Name:

Jarek

Level:

37

HP:

47/47

Physical Defense:

18

Strength:

30 (+5)

Mental Power:

14

Dexterity:

10 (+5)

Agility:

24 (+14)

Perception:

20

Luck:

22

Mana Pool:

121 (+10)

Mana Regeneration:

69 (+10)

Available Points:

23

Coins:

1,224,000

Class:

Mana Modulator (D-rank)

Profession:

Rune Master (C-rank)

Titles:

Region Lord (E-rank)

Skills and Spells:

Identify (E-rank)

Mana Modulation (D-rank Core)

Death’s Defier (A-rank)

Mana Sensing (C-rank)

Healthy Magic (E-rank)

Aquatic Respiration (E-rank)

Polyglot (E-rank)

Soul Communion (D-rank)

Cursed Lightning (D-rank)

Spiritual Traveler (D-rank)

Soul Explosion (D-rank)

Mana Control (C-rank)

Affinities:

Internal Mana (D-rank Low), External Unattributed Mana (C-rank Low) Soul Magic (D-rank Low)

Equipment:

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

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

Imperial Scout Boots (E-rank): +4 Agility.

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

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

Communication Amulet (E-rank):

Interdimensional Pouch (D-rank):

Missions:

Zone Offense

Renegade Bounty Hunter