Austin awoke around 7:00 in the morning to a pounding on his door.

He had set the old alarm clock by his bed to wake him up at 9:00, that way he could get to the site of the raid he was scheduled to join a bit early, so being awoken now was a bit unexpected.

He got up and walked to the door to his apartment and opened it. He had no reason to worry about intruders, firstly because of his newfound strength, but mostly because he had nothing worthwhile to steal. At the door stood a stocky african american woman about two heads shorter than Austin with long braided hair and a kindly face.

"Wait," he suddenly thought to himself, "Was she always that short?" He quickly looked around his apartment and found that everything, including the clothes he was wearing, were smaller than they were before.

"The stats menu said that strength affected physique…" he thought.

“But I didn’t think I’d actually get taller!” He was so surprised that he accidentally vocalized the final part of his thought.

“What was that, honey?” The woman on the other side of the door asked him, eyebrows arched in worry.

“Oh-Um, nothing, Mrs. Green.” Austin responded quickly.

"I’ll have to investigate the effects of this more later…"

“Well,” she began, the worry still plain on her face. It was like she saw through his half baked response immediately, but decided not to interfere. “I heard some stuff happened to you recently, but it is the first of the month.”

“Oh!” Austin called out in surprise. So much had happened to him that he had absolutely no idea what day of the week it was, let alone the actual date.

He looked apologetically at Mrs. Green, “I didn’t get paid for the porter job I told you about because of a slight mishap, but check this out!”

Before she had the chance to say anything, he excitedly produced his new Crawler ID from his pocket.

“What’s this, honey?” She asked, not knowing what was going on before her eyes shot wide,

“A 3-STAR!” she shouted in surprise. “Baby, since when were you even a 1-Star Crawler?”

Austin was suddenly at a loss for words, the excitement draining from his face, “Umm, yesterday?” he offered, shrugging his shoulders.

Mrs. Green eyed him suspiciously, “Mmmhmm. Well, it’s none of my business anyways.”

Austin continued, “That’s not the point. Umm, well, it kind of is.” He was fumbling, caught up in both his own awkwardness and his excitement to share his promotion. “With this, I can participate in raids and start making more money. I have a raid later today, so I should be able to pay you tonight, I promise.”

“Ok, Austin, I trust you.” She looked like she didn’t quite know what to say. As she turned to walk away, she called over her shoulder before he closed the door, “Just promise you’ll be careful, your parents would never forgive me if I let their son get hurt.”

“Right…” he said aloud, to no one in particular anymore.

Before he got ready to leave, he decided to pass the time by checking his stats.

Austin McKenna, Level 25

Title: None

Class: None

HP: 230

The amount of vitality within you, if it drops to 0, you will cease living.

Stamina: 280

The ability to act, most skills require stamina to use or maintain.

Strength: 44

Intelligence: 35

Agility: 44

Abilities:

Quick Learner:

Predecessor’s Guidance:

Ant Slayer:

Sword Mastery (Level 0):

Avatar of the Champion

Bonus points: 0

Austin had spent the bonus points to bring Strength and Agility to equal levels, but he had no real idea what that meant for him.

I’ll definitely have to do more research into exactly what one point of each skill means…"

Another thing that he noticed was that the descriptions of everything in his stat window were now missing, however he found that if he thought about it, they would once again appear.

"Well, at least that function is useful."

When the time arrived for him to set out for the Door’s location, he checked over the gear inside of the Champion’s Inventory once again. The only things he had equipped were a different set of clothes than the one he was wearing now, a hoodie, the mask, and the longsword.

He figured if he had to “Suit up” the mask wouldn’t matter if he were wearing the same clothes, thus the separate set.

"Once I get paid, I’ll have to go shopping since nothing fits me anymore…" He thought reluctantly.

Austin left his apartment and began walking to his destination. As he neared the Door site, he realized that he probably wouldn’t be able to access the Champion’s Avatar while on the raid without raising a lot of suspicion, so Austin ducked somewhere he wouldn’t be seen, then got out his longsword and hung it at his belt.

The world had changed so much since the dungeons first opened, so much so that Austin open carrying a sword didn’t even give people pause when he emerged from the alley.

He approached the site with about fifteen minutes to spare before he was to meet the rest of the raid team. Austin knew he was in the right place because the area was cordoned off from the public for the time being. He approached a man in an Association uniform standing by the entrance, and presented his ID.

“You may enter, Mr. ummm,” the man squinted, “Mr. McKenna.”

He stepped aside to let Austin pass, and while he did, Austin asked him a question, “Has anything come out of the gate yet?”

The man responded nonchalantly, “Nope, it’s been pretty docile, even as far as 1-Stars go. We haven’t had to do anything but keep the gawkers out.”

“I see,” Austin said, “Thanks.”

It was standard practice for the Crawler’s Association to immediately lock down a site where they detected a Door. They would keep anyone from the general public from comitting suicide by entering, and they always had at least one 3-Star Crawler with them in order to kill anything that found its way outside.

Nobody knew what parameters had to be met for monsters to come into their world, but sometimes it could happen within minutes of a Door opening. Even a single monster escaping into the general populace would be devastating, hence the measures taken by the Association to contain the Doors while a raid team would gather to clear it.

Obviously stronger Association members would be called in to watch stronger Doors, but since this was a 1-Star Door, Austin couldn’t even see anyone nearby who looked like they could take a monster.

He leaned on a nearby wall, facing the Door. It seemed he was the first member of the raid team to arrive, which was pretty normal. Once their meeting time passed, the team would gather and prepare to enter, so it would probably be another fifteen minutes before they actually went inside, so people usually weren’t as early as Austin was now.

But he was excited.

Austin could hardly contain himself. He was giddy at the prospect of his first actual raid. Before, his stint as a porter with Anderson’s group, was his first time in the dungeon, but this time he would be a combatant. And that idea excited him greatly.

As he was standing there, lost in his own thoughts of glory, the atmosphere shifted. None of the workers seemed to pick it up, but Austin did, so he began to draw the iron longsword at his hip.

He dashed towards the Door, hovering as a hole in space, and stood at the ready in front of it. The Association employees near him looked on in confusion, until they saw the goblin step out of the portal.

Before it even took a step forward, however, Austin dashed forwards and cleanly separated its torso from its legs in one slash. Compared to the orc, a single goblin was nothing.

As the body on the ground dissolved and left behind a small, rusted dagger, a leather armguard, and the paltry mana crystals from such a low level monster, an employee rushed over to Austin, who had already sheathed his sword.

“What the hell just happened?” The man asked breathlessly.

Austin turned to him, “I-um-I killed a goblin?” he faltered, back to his usual self.

The man looked at him oddly, “I can-um-see that, sir. How did you know he was about to come out?”

Austin didn’t know how to respond, “Intuition, I guess?”

The man looked amazed, “That’s a 3-Star for you…” he muttered, walking off to give his report.

“Hey, wait.” Austin called out, “Where is the 3-Star Crawler from the association that’s supposed to be here?” he asked quizzically.

The man looked slightly embarrassed, “Well, since the association deemed this Door to be a -um- a non-threat, he was dispatched elsewhere this morning, since we had a raid team coming to clear it.”

“And if I hadn’t been here…” Austin began, looking at the man in front of him, he didn’t need to finish that thought.

Since all the Association Employees around him were normal people, they would have had serious trouble with even a single goblin. There weren’t that many of them, and the guns they carried were for handling civilians, not the monsters. As creatures created by mana, modern weaponry and even things wielded by normal people had no effect on them. Even a Conduit too weak to be a Crawler had enough mana in their body to have their weapons affected, but if that goblin had gotten out, it likely would have been a slaughter.

Austin was very glad at his habit of being early to everything.

As he returned to the wall he was leaning on earlier, a voice called out to him.

“Are you Austin McKenna?” he heard.

Austin turned around and was face to face with a young girl about his age, with long, curly red hair, and piercing green eyes. Austin assumed she was a Crawler based on the fact she was wearing leather armor and had two daggers at her belt.

“He-I-um.” He stuttered, “Yeah?”

She giggled softly at him, “I saw you take care of that goblin just now!” she seemed very excited for some reason. “You must be very strong, how long have you been a Crawler!”

Austin had no idea how to respond from the sudden interrogation from a pretty girl. “I-uhhhh, about two days?” he said.

“No way!” she cried out, “My name is Julie, I’ll be on this raid with you. I’m a 1-Star, so I hope you show me some cool moves.”

"This girl is a total Crawler nerd. Just like how I used to be..." Austin chuckled to himself.

Just then a gruff voice called out to them, “Julie! New guy! Let’s get going.” Austin had been distracted by the interrogation, so he didn’t even notice the group of 3 other Crawlers enter the cordoned off area.

This would be his squad for this raid, Austin forgot all about the girl next to him, and once again let the excitement well up inside of him.