[Prey’s Flight] is now level 20(max). You have gained 1 Path point. Increases speed and decreases stamina use while running away from the enemy by 20%.

[Meditation] is now level 43. You have gained 1 Path point. Increases mana regeneration by 43% while the skill is active.

[Detect Presence] is now level 33. You have gained 1 Path point. Actively sends a pulse of mana to check the user’s surroundings for living beings. Range 99 meters. Uses 7 mana per minute.

[Path of Greater Dexterity 25/50] Dexterity Increased by 1. [Half-step] is now level 1(max).

[Path of Greater Dexterity 30/50] Dexterity Increased by 1.

It turns out that running away from enemies makes leveling [Prey’s Flight] really fast, shame that I maxed it out so fast on my first run between the cities.

Stamina: 84/220 Stamina Regeneration: 24,2/hour

Using my great dexterity I jumped at the tree and kicked it with my foot changing my direction towards another tree that was just four meters away, with few more kicks/jumps I was safely ten meters above ground on one of the thicker branches. Three monster dogs started clawing at the tree, yet they didn’t bark. I was glad that monsters were quiet, it would be annoying to rest for hours if they were to bark, especially since they didn’t get tired.

Running fifty kilometers per hour, a bit faster than Usain Bolt’s fastest speed pre System was a casual pace for me now. Not to mention that I could sustain it for over three hours. The dogs were helpful too, they made [Prey’s Flight] active all the time while running to the Park City from Gavensburg making such speed sustainable.

It took me one day to travel two hundred kilometers and another day to return with cargo, just like I calculated before I even took the job. I took the backpack off my back and took out some rations, mostly sugar rich sweets, with my Endurance they were considered ‘healthy’ to eat.

Over a hundred small cores jiggled a bit as a strap holding a full bag of them became undone, the two successful runs granted me a hundred forty three small cores. I lacked time to use them though, with only one core being able to be absorbed every full hour of meditating it would take me almost ten days to use those that I owned.

I would be able to use medium cores if I had a least two hundred max mana, but with a hundred and fifty it would be dangerous to do so, I have seen photos on forums of people who tried. I would rather restore twenty mana every core and live than two hundred only to explode.

While waiting on the tree branch I didn’t dare to meditate, the dogs were way too close for me to even be able to activate the skill. What I dared to do was to read books while waiting for my stamina to regenerate, otherwise I would turn insane just staring at the dogs for over five hours.

-

I heard some screams as I neared the Park City, someone was calling for help, I changed my direction and headed towards the source.

“Help!” The area around Park City was full of trees, yet it still spawned mostly monster dogs just like near Gavensburg, medium monsters that had medium cores in them appeared only deep into the park. The person calling for help was on a tree and four monster dogs were under the tree trying to jump on it.

The boy was scared shitless and clung to the main trunk with his both hands, I could see some blood on him, though it seemed to be dried. I stepped forward and dashed up to his tree from behind, a few jumps later I was at the same branch as him.

“Yo.” I said casually, yet loud enough for him to hear. The boy jerked back not hearing or seeing me climbing the tree, it didn’t help that he had his back to me when I spoke. It wasn’t really my fault that he let go of the trunk and stumbled.

“Fuck.” I murmured as the boy started falling straight towards the dogs screaming loudly.

[Half-step] used. 10 Stamina used.

Jumping directly after the boy it took me only a quarter of a second to catch up to him and catch him in my arms bridal style. The skill was useful, though the only thing it did was make me move at my fastest speed right from the start. Useful for dodging.

As the first second passed I found myself right next to four dogs already mid jump at my location, they must have known where I would land to move so fast. With the boy still in my arms I used the skill again.

[Half-step] used. 10 Stamina used.

I aimed at the tree ten meters ahead at me and immediately turned my body almost vertical. Running up the tree was hard but with the initial speed I managed to propel myself five meters up the tree that way.

[Half-step] used. 10 Stamina used.

The third use of the skill was used to jump back to the original tree, this time on a thicker branch that was a bit higher, trees around here were massive. It took two seconds to achieve all this and almost fifty stamina, carrying the boy that weighed approximately sixty kilograms used a bit of my stamina on it’s own.

“That was fucking amazing!” The boy almost shouted as I released him. He was right, it was fucking amazing, I moved like a ninja. Though I decided to keep my face expressionless and spoke nothing of it. The look of awesomeness had to be sustained, otherwise it would easily break.

“What are you doing in the forest by yourself?” I asked instead, the boy grimaced immediately. Did his team die? Was he abandoned when the dogs started chasing them?

“I was hunting dogs, but those four came out of nowhere and attacked me.” The boy pointed at the stick laying on the ground not far away from the tree they were on. “I lost my weapon and had to run, I barely made it here.” Weapon? I thought and looked at the stick again, it was a broomstick with a knife taped in on it.

“You call it a weapon?” I kept my eyes on the stick a while longer, I spoke again before the boy could have a chance to defend his choice of armament. “Why didn’t you join a team instead of coming here alone?” I looked at the sky that was somewhat visible behind the leaves, it was getting darker and I lacked the stamina to run the last ten kilometers to the city proper. Not to mention I couldn’t just leave the boy alone.

“I tried to join a team, but no one wanted me. ‘Too young’ they said and I had to come here. I need to gain cores!” The boy shouted at the end, yet I didn’t really care about his reasons. I would feel bad if I were to leave him here to die though so I just sighed.

“We will rest here and move on in the morning, I used up most of my stamina before coming here.” I took my backpack off and took out a few short ropes and a strong cargo net, it took almost half of my backpack and I never used it before.

“What’s that for?” The boy asked, looking at the net.

“I will make a platform for us between those two branches, it will easily hold our weight and allow us to sleep. Kinda like a big hammock but secured in multiple places rather than only two, making it stable.” The boy looked amazed at the idea, though he looked at the dogs below. “And what about them?” He asked.

I guess I should kill them, their claws striking the tree could draw more of them. Leaving my backpack at the branch secured to the main trunk with short rope I stepped a bit away from it. I had ten knives, but four of them were enough to kill the dogs. They were close and my throws were accurate enough to hit each of them in the head, with my slightly increased strength and dogs thick skulls the knives were beyond repair.

I didn’t bother collecting the cores from them either. The chance of one of them faking death was too great, not that I ever heard about them being capable of doing so. The boy spoke again. “That was so easy for you. You must be strong.” He looked at me like a fan looked at some star. He must be realy young, or stupid. I glanced at the stick that the boy called a weapon. Definitely stupid.

Few minutes later we were laying on the net, it wasn’t as uncomfortable as it looked, though I couldn’t help but stare at the ground below us through the holes in the net. Only medium monsters or titans were capable of shooting projectiles and there was supposed to be none so close to the cities, yet I already knew that I wouldn’t close my eyes for longer than a second this night.

-

[Sleep Deprivation] debuff added. Mana and Stamina regeneration decreased by 50%.

[Sleep Resistance] is now level 2. You gained 1 Path point. Passively decrease need for sleep by 2%.

As the sun rose we were ready to leave, I got [Sleep Deprivation] only half an only ago so my stamina was almost full and it wouldn’t be much of a problem to make it to the city. I jumped down the branches and made it to the ground in mere two seconds, and looked up. The boy was slowly making his way down the tree, he must have low stats.

Once he made it down he started looting the dead dog’s cores, he said he needed them for something so I waited. “How is your [Running] skill and endurance?” I asked as I wondered about his ability to run back to the city. He answered as he cut the last dog, his job sloppy. “I have level seven in it and twelve endurance.” I grimaced, no running then.

We started walking soon after. The pace was really slow, or perhaps I got too used to running all the time. I will need to sleep once I get back into the city and start my trip back on the next day to make sure that I don’t have to spend another night away from the city. I yawned loudly.

“You didn’t sleep, mister?” The boy asked, eager to start a conversation. I grunted, already annoyed at the boy’s questions which he kept up through half a night. I grunted a few more times before we made it to the city an hour and a half later, how the boy walked so far into the fields and forest without finding other dogs I didn’t know.

Once we made it to the boy’s house I took two dozen small cores out of my backpack and gave them to the boy, it turns out that he has a mother with a cancer in late stage that couldn’t move, thus he decided to get some small cores for her to level up her [Meditation] and [Detect Presence] quickly in order for her to invest points into [Path of Endurance].

Apparently endurance made the user's body more resistant to cancer. The boy said that his mother already gained one Endurance point from the path and it seemed to help her. I treated it like an investment, I wanted to know if high enough Endurance could defeat cancer, I had nothing to do with so many cores anyway. I would need to take a week free to use up most of the cores once I got back.

“Remember to focus on [Running] skill and endurance first, no matter how good your [Melee Weapon Mastery] is you won't be able to solo a few dogs without moving fast.” I advised the boy one last time, he hadn’t bothered to invest in endurance and instead went all out with [Path of Strength] and [Melee Weapon Mastery]. I wonder how many idiots like him I will meet. I left for my apartment soon after, it was weird having two apartments to use even if each was in a different city. The group I was in took good care of it’s runners at least.

I got my phone out and looked again at the last message I got. ‘It was proven that the monster rate of spawning deteriorated but the Army is still conscripting people. Our client is worried about what will happen and so are we, be wary of the Army and try to stay away from the soldiers.’ It said.

There was news that more and more nations fell to dictatorships and it seemed that the nation that I was born in would soon try to follow suit. Joah was right in the end, if you are not with the Army you are against it. I yawned again. I could always run away to another nation, though it would be a pain in the ass to learn another langue.