“Seven dogs half a kilometer to your east, they are coming your way.” I said into my walkie-talkie, I traveled alone around the group looking for enemies, typical scout job. I didn’t bother the dogs and went around them making sure that they didn't notice me. For dog-like monsters they were really bad trackers.

“Got it.” Alex’s voice responded as I ran ahead looking for another enemy, we were one day away from the Park City. I had an app on my phone that showed how far and in which direction I was from Alex’s phone, really useful and easy to use. We had even twenty power banks and two bigger solar panels to recharge them on one of the cars. I still had a compass and a map in my backpack though, who knew if there wasn’t some anti-electricity type of monster.

Few minutes later I found something that was quite worrying.

“Seven vans, recently used one kilometer and three hundred meters to the south-east.” I said to walkie-talkie, the vans were too clean to be here for long. “Got it.” Responded Alex, though it no longer had a casual ring to it. “Search for the owners.” I was already on it.

We were in the forest, which made it an easy opportunity for an ambush. I moved slower, thanks to my high dexterity and [Grace] passive it allowed me to move quietly. Like a ninja.

I found them soon after, close to the road which the convoy used to travel, there were easily more than a hundred of them, most had some kind of gun, mostly pistols. They looked like and probably were thugs, I even noticed the same person with a katana that was running after me a few days ago. I recognized him only because he still only had a katana, he was showing it off to some other thug.

I hid at the tree three hundred meters away and took out my phone, my walkie-talkie turned off to make sure that no electronics fucked me by making a sound. My heart was beating faster than usual, with System skills even a thug could have a sniper like abilities to hit me. And if they were to catch up to me I would be easily dead, I doubt they were capable of doing so though.

I checked if flash was turned off three times before I made a photo and sent it directly to Alex, he sent a message back saying that he got it and that he had my location from the app. ‘Stalk them.’ was my next order while the convoy took another route. 'If the ambushers move that would mean that they have a rat in our convoy. If they will stay oblivious then perhaps a rat will decide to stay hidden. Perhaps I am too paranoid.' My own thoughts made me think that only an idiot would give new route of the convoy away, it would be a suicide.

The app was showing that the group sped up and moved towards another road, it would be foolish to try and fight the ambushers, dozens would die on our side even with us knowing about the ambush. I did the only thing I could… I waited.

It was boring watching the thugs from my spot on the tree so I used the amazing zoom that my phone had and tried to take a photo of every face that I could see, most were turned sideways to me facing a road, waiting with excitement. No doubt they were promised quite a haul, the client had with him quite a number of hard cash and cores.

Sometimes some of them looked around making me tense, though none looked exactly at me. My body was covered wholly by camo outfit, I even had a camo hood making only my eyes visible. It was weird that they didn’t have any scouts, they haven’t moved in the past three hours and some of them were getting reckless.

Surely there should be some leaders in there that are stronger, or even a random person with a scout ability. Thankfully [Detect Presence] was quite useless while in big groups, if there was someone with an advanced version of the skill capable of sensing me he or she might think that I was an ally. What would be the point of trying to ambush a much superior force though?

The convoy was long gone, they were almost twenty kilometers away now. Thankfully the app still worked, making me a bit less worried about my own situation.

‘Get back, we are almost at the city.’ Alex wrote. I complied, too bored to keep watching. I already did all the photos that I could with the limited storage on my phone. I jumped down and sped away from the ambushers, I needed to get around them to make sure they didn’t notice me. I needed to upgrade my [Detect Presence] if I am to work as a scout all the time, the path would give me a bit more wisdom as well, though not enough to be capable of using the medium cores.

Half an hour later I was at the city together with the convoy, it was easy to catch up to them with my speed, though I didn't have [Prey's Flight] active through most of the journey. With so many people at the city no one would dare to attack the client making the security quite lax. “Yo.” I said as I approached, this time slowly not to startle the guys with guns.

“Great job, William.” Alex spoke with quite a few guild members whose names I didn’t remember. “I made photos of half of them while I was waiting, they didn’t move from the spot.” Alex was in charge of the operation, I didn't really care about the group that tried to ambush us or a possible rat.

“Send it to Joah, he will take care of it.” Someone said, I nodded. Alex spoke next. “You will get quite a rise from the client, he seemed thankful enough to our guild when I told him that we will be changing the route due to the ambush that was ahead.” Great, another medium or small cores that I didn’t have time or ability to use. I needed to increase my max mana

“Is there anything else?” I asked, eager to leave and rest. Alex shook his head and I left, we would be paid later on.

-

[Meditation] is now level 47. You have gained 1 Path point. Increases mana regeneration by 47% while the skill is active.

[Detect Presence] is now level 41. You have gained 1 Path point. Actively sends a pulse of mana to check the user’s surroundings for living beings. Range 123 meters. Uses 6 mana per minute.

[Melee Weapon Mastery] is now level 12. You have gained 1 Path point. Increases handling of the melee weapons. Increases Strength while using melee weapons by 12%.

[Path of Greater Dexterity 40/50] Dexterity Increased by 1.

[Path of Greater Dexterity 45/50] Dexterity Increased by 1.

[Path of Greater Dexterity 50/50] Dexterity Increased by 1. [Running] upgraded to [Advanced Running].

[Advanced Running] level 20. Passively Increases running speed by 40% and decreases stamina used while running by 20%.

I trained [Melee Weapon Mastery] for almost the whole week just for points, but now with [Running] upgraded to [Advanced Running] I won't bother to use any stamina on melee weapons. The max level of [Advanced Running] is level 50 making it a long term skill that I will need to level. It was a bit disappointing that it will only increase running speed by 2% every level with reduced stamina cost staying at 20% all the time. I will need more endurance to be able to run much larger distances. Endurance and better stamina regeneration was more important than ability to restore mana with medium cores, making me decide on the next path.

-

“It will hurt.” Said Alex as I sat strapped with chains to a metal chair in a dark room. Thick stick in my mouth to stop me from screaming, and biting apparently if Alex was to be believed. It was easy and fast to level [Pain Resistance], but it was painful, terribly so. A single cut and a bit of salt was needed to level it efficiently, apparently Alex had helped people level it a few times before. I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself.

'I can help, I worked as a butcher before the System came.' Closing my eyes made me reminisce about Alex's words, it was always the former butchers that were the most disturbing. 'It was meant as a joke.' He later said, but my nonexistent paranoia made me narrow my eyes back then.

There was a good reason for doing it now. The Army finally made its move, the Capital was under their control and streets were full of rioting people demanding the return of democracy, the usual response when a democracy turns into a dictatorship. The military armed to teeth shooting the civilians following the orders was quite common as well even before the System.

If they came for our group I would need to be capable of running away, I have heard what the higher ups in the army were capable of with magic. If only I had an army capable of bringing me big and giant cores or intercontinental rickets I would stay and fight. Perhaps.

There were already few bloody fights between the few hundred soldiers stationed in Park City and its inhabitants, resulting in withdrawal of the Army from the city. Everyone waited to see what the new Dictator would do in response.

Sooner or later I had to do this, the [Path of Greater Endurance] was simply too important to ignore. It was better to do it sooner rather than later.

The salt touched the cut and pain started.

Soon after started my own screams.

-

[Pain Resistance] is now level 30. You have gained 1 Path point. Decreases pain by 30%.

[Path of Greater Endurance 5/50] Endurance Increased by 1.

[Path of Greater Endurance 10/50] Endurance Increased by 1.

[Path of Greater Endurance 15/50] Endurance Increased by 1.

[Path of Greater Endurance 20/50] Endurance Increased by 1.

[Path of Greater Endurance 25/50] Endurance Increased by 1. [Lesser Regeneration] upgraded to [Minor Regeneration].

Stamina 270/270. Stamina regeneration 35,1 per hour.

It took me almost two days of laying in bed to make me want to leave it and finally distribute the path points, the pain faded quickly but few hours of unending hell somewhat made me wish to ignore everything, perhaps it was a brief depression.

In just one day I increased my stamina regeneration by almost 50% but it didn’t feel worth it. I swore to never level [Pain Resistance] again, ever. Let’s hope that there isn’t any path of super mega great endurance that required level 50 of [Pain Resistance].

My phone made a few beep-boop noises. ‘The Army opened fire on the protesting crowd in the Capital, almost two hundred died.’ It was Joah that wrote so on the guild’s group chat. There was always more and more news about the Army’s doing these days.

One beep-boop later Joah wrote again. ‘Our client has made an agreement with few like minded people, they want to create a free city that is free from the Army’s influence. Apparently the Army supports this. We would be basically free of their influence, for a cost of course.’ Officially a free city, in reality a vassal state. That was good news, though it didn’t bode well for Park City residents. There will be fights for the control of this new ‘free city’ soon.

Too bad that I was a resident of Park City as well, not to mention I was part of the group that already chose a side. It didn’t help that we were getting a monthly stipend from the ‘rich snob’ now to act more like a mercenary group, it was apparently thanks to me finding out about the ambush that caused it.

Soon after Joah called a meeting between the few official members that were at the Park City.

“Yo.” I said as I entered the apartment, it wasn’t the guild headquarters, we didn’t have such a thing. Four others alongside Alex and Joah were present, apparently the most trusted ones.

“We have important news.” There was always news, weird that they didn’t want to share it on the group chat. “It was Blyaza after all that was responsible for the ambush.” Joah spoke, he continued soon after seeing that no one was surprised. “He did so on the orders of another big fish here, apparently one of the ‘rich snob’ new business rivals wanted to see him gone, and that is our problem.”

Alex spoke next. “We need to capture some of Blyaza’s thugs alive, we want to make a counter ambush when one of our couriers gets well… ambushed.” I didn’t like the sound of it.

Alex and Joah looked at me expectantly. I didn’t like the look of that either. “Fine. But it will be better worth it, they will send someone faster this time.” Joah nodded and responded. “We hope for one of his officers at least, our client agreed to fund it with two hundred medium cores to act as a bait, we will move it through the Bakery to make sure that Blyaza gets the info.” Alex added soon after. “We start in two days on the morning.” We made some plans and left soon after leaving the apartment and dispersed. I better use the time to level [Advanced Running], even if only a bit.