"Gabriel!"

Dikez stood on him, shouting at the confused man, who had just reopened his eyes.

"Good, you're alive. Anyway, congrats, we did manage to bring it down. It managed to burn my hair some, though," the giant said with a grin. He didn't really seem fazed by it.

"Ow, ow, ow…" Gabe lamented as he got up, "Ouch!" Alright, that did indeed hurt… broken ribs? Yeah.

"Broken ribs?" Asked Dikez.

"Yup… just let me sit for a little; I need to see my messages."

"Sure, sure, take your time; I'll flag and Gobble the turtle up."

Gabriel sat up, his eyes heading for his lizard. He quickly found her sniffing and checking the dead tortoise. Dikez had managed to turn her neck and head into a paste, he could see bones, but the head was still very much attached to the neck, making him wonder how much strength did Sigmund produce while he attacked. Dikez, even if much more agile, was nothing compared to him in terms of raw power.

Enough with the needless thoughts; it's time to level up!

And it indeed was.

You have killed (1) Level 42 - Fire Tortoise of Turtle Island plains

You have gained:

Level + 270.6%

Class Level + 120%

Spirit Level + 256%

Burst Attack Tier 6 + 120%

Helping Hand Tier 3 + 0%

Congratulations, Gabriel Walker.

You have reached Level 13.

You have 3 unspent Body Attribute points.

Congratulations, Gabriel Walker.

You have reached Class level 8.

You can increase your Pools by 10 points.

Congratulations, Gabriel Walker.

You have reached Spirit level 9.

You have 2 unspent Spirit Attribute points.

Congratulations, Gabriel Walker.

Burst Attack reaches Tier 7.

New effect: Increase your Power and Alacrity by up to 200% for 1 Energy point. Permanently increases Recovery by 70%.

Woah! One good haul! Still… it did almost really kill me.

Thank god it did not bring me to 0 Life. I would have no way to explain it once Sigmund saw me walk as a corpse. Too close, too close.

After that, Gabriel called for Liz, and he distributed the points.

His new 10 Pool points were split among Energy and Spirit, bringing them both to fifteen.

He rounded Liz's Power and Stamina to 3. He did not really know how to treat his Spirit raise nor her build since he had still no idea in which direction she would grow. And asking her actually did not yield any results; if he had no idea, she would most of the time react the same way.

After that, finally, he had to decide where to place his own points. The step was a crucial one; it was because placing his points correctly would determine which new Skill he would have to take once he was given a chance to choose one.

Stamina. Stamina is the answer, and I could make sure Power and Alacrity follow close behind… but I feel Stamina definitely is what I need… I don't know if it's only about speeding up Energy regeneration… What did Garena say Stamina, Alacrity, and Affinity formed? Ah, who cares!

In the end, Gabriel placed all three of his newly gained Attribute points into Stamina, raising it to 12. A rush of adrenalin came forth, and he shot up like an arrow, immediately focusing on his mission. A smile creeping up his mouth.

"Woah, dude, how much have you leveled up? Stamina, eh? Look at that!" Said Dikez, laughing madly.

"Look at what!?" Said an overexcited Gabriel.

Dikez nictated at him, looking at his crotch.

Gabriel was so excited that his body had answered in all possible ways.

"Oh, shit!" He answered, turning to laugh as he covered his erection.

"Come on, let's get back to Carla, help me haul the corpse up; flags are good and all, but people can be pricks."

"Yes!" Gabriel took his chance to focus on physical labor. His blood would go to other extremities.

Liz jumped on the tortoise corpse, snuggling on the shell; she had grown a couple more inches, making Gabriel imagine when she would be as big as him, the possibility definitely closer than he initially thought.

***

"Look at that thing! What level was it?" Said a happy Carla.

"Thirty-five!" Dikez shouted back.

After roughly half an hour, they had managed to reach the place where the giantess was standing in wait.

"So the fire pillars I saw, that was you, guys!?" She shouted back.

Thirty-five, uh? So when talking about levels, Class level is what they give more weight to; now it's confirmed. Gabriel acknowledged, among huffs and puffs.

Taking that thing back had been one hell of a good exercise, even his naturally increased Power was barely enough to lift and nudge the tortoise ass up a little, and it was almost entirely devoid of flesh now that the Gobbler had finished its work.

His arms and legs trembled, and he was all red for the effort, but if he kept doing it, and maybe, really maybe repeating that a few more times, would net him that 1 last point of Power he could freely gain.

Once they delivered the turtle down, Gabriel collapsed on the ground, back on the empty carapace.

However, it was no time to rest already, he had to heal his pools, and since he really had nothing much in that regard, he could simply heal up by eating and drinking what Dikez had brought with him.

When he asked, Dikez answered with a smile, producing everything he really needed. One was a little package all crumpled with what Gabriel noticed was turtle sausage with some purple mashed vegetables; as a drink, he brought a huge bottle instead with something resembling a beer with the intense color of Golden Syrup and a cup.

The syrupy beer was enough to instantly refill him of Stamina. He felt coming back alive, while the mashed vegetable incredibly speeded up his Mana regeneration, and the sausage did the same with his Life, which had already ticked up by 1, his Recovery allowing him to recover his Life to full in just a day.

As he finished eating and Dikez finished the bite he had had too, he was met with another message.

You have gained:

Helping Hand Tier 3 + 61.8%

Congratulations, Gabriel Walker.

Helping Hand reaches Tier 4.

New effect: Increases target’s Recovery by 250% for 1 Mana point. Permanently increases Recovery by 40%.

His eyebrows arched, Nice! We’ve finished healing and that’s my reward!

With that, he finally recalled his Anchor Page to study his new Status.

Gabriel Walker

Race

Human

Level

13 (57.05%)

Class

Striker

Class Level

8 (5.2%)

Spirit

Spirit of The Lizard

Spirit Level

9 (77.3%)

Pools

Life

Energy

Mana

Spirit

10/10

15/15

15/15

1/15

Attributes

Body

Spirit

Final

Affinity

9

2

11

Alacrity

9

3

12

Power

11

3

14

Recovery

14.7 (7)

3

17.7

Resilience

10

8 (4)

18

Stamina

12

3

15

Tethers

Bond

Enhancement

Boost

Lizard

Affinity +2

Alacrity +1

Recovery +1

Resilience+2

Alacrity +2

Power +1

Recovery +2

Stamina +1

Perks

Cost

Type

Analysis

1 Mana per use

First Tier - Active

Enhanced Senses

None

First Tier - Passive

Skills

Skill

Effect

Element

Slot

Type

Tier

Burst Attack

Increase your Power and Alacrity by 200%. Permanently increases your Recovery by 70%.

None

Power

Basic Skill - Spirit Skill

7 (51.4%)

Helping Hand

Increase a target’s Recovery by 250%.

Permanently increases Recovery by 40%

None

Recovery

Basic Skill - Spirit Skill

4 (4.4%)

Spirit Skills

Skill

Effect

Element

Slot

Type

Type

Burst Attack

Increase your Power and Alacrity by 200%.

None

Power

Basic Skill - Spirit Skill

Active

Dry Scales

Permanently doubles Resilience.

Gives Fire Resistance.

None

Resilience

Spirit Skill

(Common)

Passive

Helping Hand

Increase a target’s Recovery by 250%.

None

Recovery

Basic Skill - Spirit Skill

Active

His Recovery was already through the roof, considering that he had not put a single point in enhancing it, or at least, so he thought.

The new Spirit Skills list was a nice addition. It had unlocked once he chose Dry Scales. It confirmed something he was already sure of. That the Basic Skills were shared and that only he could and had to level them up, but his Spirit could use them to their maximum power.

By the time he would max both his Basic Skills, he calculated that his Recovery would reach a 21, counting if he did not add even a point to it.

His Recovery really was good. It felt good, and more than that, if he found a way to actively use his Life, he would have really an extremely easy time at leveling up each of his levels, of course, not taking into consideration Spirit level.

I just wonder how much leveling speed drops every level; maybe I should ask them. I've really got no idea of how it works. But his thoughts had to stop there because Carla called for their attention; something was coming at them, and her voice sounded a little tense.

The tyrant?

Climbing up on her ridge and focusing, he noticed that it was no armored monsters what was coming at them, but a Sigmund, with Olive climbing on his neck for dear life, and two giant turtles after them. Sadly, it did not end there, a horde of snakes, birds, and some monkeys on top of the turtles' carapaces.

What the hell have they done!

"Run…" came a distant voice.

"Is he saying something?" Dikez asked.

"Run…" said Carla and Gabriel in a chore.

"Run, and go toward the lake; we fucked up," repeated Gabriel, turning around and starting in a frantic run toward the lake.

It was really far, he realized, and he had no idea if he would be able to keep up to the giant's running pace. Those turtles, after all, looked green; they were wind turtles… the fast ones.

Carla and Dikez quickly ran past him, Carla scooping him up and placing him on her shoulder.

His stomach bounced up and down on her muscles; they were tough as marble.

"What kind of- uff- fucked up- ugh- level of Resilience have you got!?" He asked.

"You don't ask for a lady's Resilience," she said, smiling.

***

After an hour or so of running, they had almost reached the rocks encircling the pool. The giants were running at… he really had no idea how fast that could be, but the sight almost blurred around him.

Just what kind of difference there is between one Tier and another?

He now knew why he got that much experience when he took part in a battle with such a big difference in level.

It was genuinely impossible for him to take on an adversary of an entirely higher Tier by himself; without the support, he would really amount to nothing.

Reveling in his own self-doubt, he let himself be carried for the last ten minutes of the trip.

When they had finally reached their destination, they started climbing on the rocks, getting high enough to use that height as a defensive position.

Five minutes after Gabriel, Carla, and Dikez had reached their objective, Sigmund and Olive reached the place. The turtles had gained on them, and Sigmund was covered in cuts and bruises for the birds and monkeys' rocks assault.

"I wonder how they managed to get that fucked up, ok, we've mobbed in the past, but that… that's the first time Sigmund comes back with such a crowd following him," said Dikez.

"Maybe Olive overextended?" Carla suggested.

"We'll see," said Gabe, "what I worry about is something else. Do we have any way of attacking those monsters from up here?"

"Well, if Gorban was here… but he's been promoted to Wyrm hunter, so…" answered Dikez, "so, yeah, we really have no way to deal with them, we need to wait them out, we might have to switch in hunting by the lake. However..." he let it hang in the air.

"Help her up!" Sigmund shouted as they got at the edges of the rock formation.

They had managed to distance a little bit from their persecutors, sprinting forward just enough to distance themselves from the monsters as they climbed.

Sigmund threw Olive in the air like a ball; the high-pitched screaming girl was turned into human artillery. Carla snatched her up just in time.

Olive summoned a wall of water, placing it between Sigmund and the monsters; the wall of water became a wave, washing over the monsters, doing nothing to the turtles but washing over the other monsters knocking birds down, trampling over snakes, and sending the monkeys tumbling on the ground.

As Sigmund started climbing the turtles, the only ones that were still stable and on the move, launched balls of compressed air at his back; they felt like cannonballs.

"Now, Dik!" Sigmund shouted, but Dikez had already started.

His axes were thrown with might, flipping in the air and landing on the turtles' faces, making them stagger.

Gabriel was surprised, asking himself why the giant would waste his axes like that, but soon the axes embedded inside of the monsters' body, they disappeared in flickering azure light of untarnished Mana. Only to reappear in Dikez's hands in the same way they had disappeared, then the cycle repeated.

The human followed the effort of the throw and the raw strength Dikez put into it, neck's veins bulging, his teeth gritting in the effort of throwing them with inconceivable might.

The axes dug deep in the monster's skin, but the damage was not enough to be a continuous source of damage, or at least it wasn't for the turtles. It was enough to leave enormous damage for everything else, which was magnified as the axes disappeared from their bodies, leaving behind bleeding gashes in them. They simply could not rely on it to bring down the horde of monsters.

While Sigmund climbed, Gabriel witnessed Dikez throw his axes dozens of times, and he was a little shocked by it.

How come the fighter could use such a huge amount of Mana? It's like the question of the turtle's health; it was way too high. Does something change when one Tier's up?

Finally, the young giant managed to get out of harm's way, and Olive started applying her healing. Gabriel did not waste time throwing Helping Hands at him on each of his wounds.

He cast seven of them, but only five took hold in total. He had no idea how the process worked, how the Skills would associate groups of wounds or such; it was already enough of a guess for him to gauge which cast had taken hold, by the glowing of the wounds, after that he would just have to wait for the healing to end.

"How in Odin's wrath did you fuck up like that, Mundo?" Dikez asked as they moved further to get out of the turtles' range; they were confident that the birds would not come at them for some reason.

Odin? Really? Gabriel thought.

"We overextended guys, I'm sorry," he said, looking dejected.

"It's not his fault; we separated and went hunting. Sadly we all caught something. I caught a turtle, Brill caught another, and we encountered Sigmund followed by a horde," Olive said.

"Alright, but why the horde? Snakes and birds and monkeys from the forest, how did you catch- well, how did they catch you in the fields?" Carla interjected.

"I don't know. Maybe they were running away from something; another party or…"

"Or the Tyrant," Dikez said, nodding.

"Well, we made it through, didn't we? Let's hunt for a little; then we have you go collecting the Turtle shells we left behind." Sigmund ordered.

"Why, though?" Gabriel asked, "Didn't you flag them?"

"Yes, but we're too far away from them now. People can be pricks; someone must have seen us run away with monsters at our tails."

"He's right; someone might have already taken possession of the red carapace. Should have just placed it in the D-bag." Said Dikez.

"The Dimensional bag," Olive said, by turning to look at Gabriel's questioning gaze.

"Oh, right, game bag. Of course, that's a thing, then why didn't you do it right away?" He asked.

"Are you crazy? And the weight?" Dikez answered with a shrilling voice.

"Weight? So it doesn't work for the weight?" Gabriel.

"Ha! Like I could have the money for something that expensive! No, our bag only shrinks a dozen or so cubic meters of matter. We should already be thankful that the seams have yet to be torn apart by the turtle's weight…" he confessed.

Fucking game logic… and you? Why don't you talk since you understand me so entirely? Do you require more money too? He said, looking at Liz, which acted confused for a second before turning at him and punishing him for his mood swings.

"Ouch!"

Then they proceeded forward, the lake and the waterfall, crystal clear in front of them.