Austin was standing at the counter waiting for the receptionist to finish counting out his earnings.

“These crystals come to a total of $16,500, Mr. McKenna.”

Austin had just made more money from one dungeon than he had seen in quite some time. The massive crystals dropped by the bears were extremely valuable, and Austin was giddy to have gotten such a large payday.

He handed the man his Crawler ID, which he had recently found out could be linked to his personal bank account. The man swiped his ID card, confirmed Austin’s identity, and the money was automatically wired into his account.

“This is much more convenient than taking checks all the way to the bank!”

As he was walking towards the bus stop to head back home, his phone started vibrating in his pocket.

“Glad this didn’t break during a fight. Maybe I should invest in one of those Crawler models that are supposed to be super durable…”

Austin didn’t know who would be calling him, as the only person he could think of who knew his number was his landlady, Mrs. Green.

He pulled out his phone and checked the caller ID, but it wasn’t a number he knew. He answered the phone and a deep male voice began coming through the receiver.

“Is this Austin McKenna?”

“Um-Yeah, I’m Austin.” He responded, confused at who he was talking to.

“Good, I’m glad you didn’t put down a fake number. This is Director Johnathan Young.”

“Ahhh!” Austin exclaimed, now being able to distinguish Young’s voice through his shoddy phone speakers. “Mr. Young, umm wh-what can I do for you?” He stammered, wondering if he had done something to violate the generous deal he had been given.

“Don’t be so nervous. I know you’re in the downtown area at the moment, as you just finished up a raid there. There’s a dungeon break occurring not too far from you. Our men are keeping it contained, but they need a bit of help.” Young quickly explained the situation.

“Wh-why me?” Austin asked, bewildered.

“Consider it a test of sorts. You can wear that mask if you want, the employees have been informed that an anonymous Crawler is coming, so they won’t stop you. I’m sending the address to you now, please hurry.”

“H-hold on just a second!” Austin cried out. “Don’t I get a choice in this?”

“Of course you have a choice.” Young stated abruptly. “But you’re going to go anyways, aren’t you?”

Austin was stunned. It seemed Young had him totally pegged.

“I’ll go.” Austin responded, already headed into a remote alleyway.

His wrists still hurt from where the wolves bit into him, but it felt like leveling up healed him a bit, if not fully.

“I can do this.”

“Avatar, activate!” He called out, and in a flash of brilliance, was wrapped in his armor and cloak.

He checked his phone to see where the break was occuring, and began running in that direction.

He got a few strange looks from the people on the street as he weaved his way through pedestrian foot traffic as fast as he could, but most people correctly assumed he was a Crawler.

“This is no good, there are too many people out. It’ll take too long to get there at this rate and I can’t expect the association to hold forever, or they wouldn’t have called me.”

He ducked out of the crowd and walked over to a nearby cafe. He crouched down preparing to jump, and receiving even more strange looks, he leapt onto the roof of the shop and began running from roof to roof towards his destination. While he ran, a message appeared in front of his eyes, “You have unlocked a new ability: Leap.”

Austin had been doing a lot of jumping lately, so he guessed that it had somehow manifested as a new ability.

“If repeated actions can manifest an ability, I may be able to get creative…”

Moving as the crow flies was much more efficient than using the roads, so Austin arrived at the site in no time, however he found it in a much more orderly state than he expected.

The entire area around the Door had been cordoned off by makeshift fencing, as was protocol with a new Door, and it seemed that it was holding for now. Several Association employees in armor were milling about. At the entrance, a familiar face stood.

Agent Adam White snapped towards the roof where Austin was standing before he had even made himself known. Having been discovered, Austin hopped down from the building and stood in front of White.

“No wonder monsters haven’t breached containment yet, he’s here…”

White looked at him with a slight hint of disdain.

“Ahh, so I guess you’re the one who they want to clean this mess up.”

Austin mustered his courage, pretending he was acting. Taking up the persona of “Savior,” he tried to think of how a hero would act. After all, it was his class.

Austin made an exaggerated show of shrugging. “My apologies for what happened last time.”

“God I sound like a jerk. Oh well, too late.”

White looked like he wanted to kill Austin before the monsters got the chance to try it. “Young told me not to take care of them myself. I guess this is why. Go on in.”

With that, White stepped aside and turned away. It seemed he wasn’t interested in any further conversation.

Austin walked through and saw quite a few mana crystals scattered across the ground.

Austin walked past about a dozen crystals before he heard slithering off to his right.

Without thinking, he struck out with his sword and heard the sound of metal on metal as his blade recoiled.

He jumped backwards to get some distance from whatever he had clashed with, and saw that it was a large Naga holding a spear that had some kind of viscous green liquid coating the tip. Poison.

The Naga were like a mythical centaur, but instead of the lower half being a horse, it was a serpent.

Naga Soldier: Level 32

“So they’re weaker than the bears. Good, but I still need to watch out for the poison.”

The Naga reared back and raised its spear to thrust towards Austin. He baited it out, and at the last moment twisted his body to the side. Moving along the spear, he got close to the Naga and struck horizontally at where the tail ended and the body began, however, the Naga was more agile than other creatures he had fought before and much more intelligent.

It twisted its body unnaturally and brought its tail up to defend against the slash. Austin’s sword cut through, but only halfway. It was now stuck in the Naga’s tail.

Thinking quickly, instead of panicking and trying to pull his weapon free, he would try a different approach. He dodged around the spear that was once again thrusting towards him, but this time he grabbed onto the pole as it rushed past him.

He pulled with all of his might (which was quite considerable) and the Naga lost its grip on the weapon. Austin quickly turned it around in his hands and thrust it towards the Naga’s cobra-like head.

If snakes could look surprised, this would be it. The Naga took its own spear to the face and died quickly after, leaving behind a medium sized mana crystal.

Level Up!

“I have no idea if the mana crystals are mine for the taking, so I’ll just leave them.”

Austin continued on, trying as hard as he could to conceal his presence as he approached the rest of the Naga.

He came upon what seemed to be a kind of staging area for the monsters as they prepared to attack the city, and among them Austin saw one serpent in particular.

Naga Chief (BOSS): Level 37

Standing next to the chief were also two smaller snakes holding staves.

Naga Shaman: Level 34

Including the Chief and the casters, there were about two dozen monsters in total filling up the back alley. The fact that the boss of the dungeon was out here meant that if Austin killed it, the Door would collapse without having to go on a raid.

This was actually a hunting method used for dungeons with particularly hazardous environments. Crawler teams would simply wait outside the Door for the boss to emerge, and then take care of it without having to venture through the dungeon.

This method was considered too risky for most dungeons, however, as the boss could take a long time to appear so it wasted resources keeping the area locked down. Not to mention that if the boss defeated the Crawlers and got out it would be a calamity.

Setting all that aside, Austin quietly dispatched the Naga that was keeping watch outside of their makeshift camp. He snuck up beside it and removed its head from the rest of the serpentine body.

He caught the body as it fell to the ground so as not to alert the rest of the creatures, then left it on the ground as it dissolved.

Austin had settled on a plan of attack, and he was just hoping that he had enough stamina to make it work.

He activated Sprint and began moving faster than a normal human could even see, making a beeline towards where the Shamans and the chief stood he cut down three Naga in his path before they even had time to react.

The chief turned towards Austin, seemingly the only one that could slightly distinguish his movement, but he was still behind.

Austin cut the two Shamans in half and made a circle around the rest of the Naga doing the same for the rest of them, racking up levels the entire time.

In total, this took only a few seconds, but it was enough. When Austin made his final dash towards the chief, however, a message popped up in front of his face: “Stamina depleted.”

He was only about a foot away from the Naga when suddenly his speed returned to normal and he collapsed to the ground.

“Oh no.”

The Naga didn’t waste the opportunity and rushed toward Austin. He only barely managed to avoid the poison soaked spear tip that was thrust into the ground where his head was seconds ago.

Austin’s entire body felt heavy, but he could still move. This was a major disadvantage against the boss, though.

The Naga had gotten his spear stuck in the pavement when he thrust it at Austin, and was now trying to wrench it free. Austin took the opportunity to swing towards its unprotected neck, but the Naga was too fast. It got the spear free and parried Austin’s sword with ease.

Austin retreated back, but the Naga didn’t give chase, instead acting like it was sizing him up.

A glint passed through its reptilian eye, and it hurled the spear at Austin as hard as it could. Austin was a bit confused and easily dodged the spear, but it seemed that was a feint. As he landed he suddenly found himself wrapped up in the Naga’s tail, being squeezed tightly.

The Naga bared its fangs at him, and Austin struggled with all of his strength to free himself of the binding tail.

He noticed that his legs were still relatively free, as the tail was only around his arms and torso. Austin stopped struggling and pretended to go limp. As the Naga came in closer to enjoy its meal, Austin waited until the right moment. As soon as it opened its mouth he suddenly lurched backwards and kicked up with as much force as possible.

The Naga had loosened its tail, thinking Austin was dead, so this maneuver worked. He drove his foot hard into the Naga’s lower jaw, and watched as its fangs pierced through its own skin.

The Naga writhed in agony, and Austin took this moment to raise his sword and put it out of its misery.

Level Up! Level Up!

He had won, though only barely. The gambit with Sprint had cost him dearly, but it was over with Austin only marginally worse for wear.

“Gotta go report back to White…” Austin thought, wondering if he should grab the large mana crystal the Chieftain had left behind.

He decided against it, and made his way back to the entrance of the cordoned off street.