Austin walked through the makeshift fence blocking off the area where the break had occurred. Waiting for him outside was a very pissed off looking Agent White.

As Austin approached, White scoffed, “Were they too tough for you?”

Austin was smiling underneath his mask, continuing to maintain the cocky persona he had put on earlier. “Not in the slightest. The Door is closed and they’re all dead.”

White stammered. “Erm-Well we’re still going to sweep the area to make sure. Did you take the crystals?”

Austin let out a hearty chuckle, inwardly chiding himself at what a prick he sounded like. “Of course not! They weren’t mine to take.”

White continued to look dumbfounded at him. Through gritted teeth he said, “We’ll turn them into the association, the director will decide what compensation you get from this.”

White made it clear that their conversation was now over as he took the rest of the employees with him to sweep the area. Austin exited the lockdown perimeter and was immediately swamped by cameras.

“It was a dungeon break in the middle of the city during rush hour, I suppose there would be quite a media presence.”

Austin hadn’t seen them when he arrived, as he came by roof from the opposite direction, but he definitely saw them now.

Correctly assuming he was the Crawler who took care of the incident, all manner of reporters crowded around him and started asking questions.

“Are you the Crawler who resolved this dungeon break?”

“Are you part of a team?”

“Who are you under that mask?”

Austin was a bit dumbfounded. He was awkward in normal conversations so to be suddenly swamped like this left him speechless.

He decided to continue with the cocky attitude he had put on in front of White. He turned to the reporter who had asked the first question and said, “I’m Savior. Who I am under the mask isn’t important, I’m just here to kill monsters.”

While he was still surrounded, Austin quietly checked his stamina to see if it had recovered any. Seeing that he had, he smirked. Putting strength into his legs, he activated the Leap and soared into the sky, landing on the roof of a nearby building. He heard the sound of a dozen cameras snapping his picture as he flew and began bounding from building to building to escape the media circus.

After about a block, he dropped into an empty alley and released his empowered form before walking out onto the street as if nothing had happened.

“Man, I’ve really gotta work on my self confidence. I can’t keep freezing in front of people…”

As he was walking down the street, his phone began ringing again. Pulling it out, he saw the same number as earlier and answered it.

Young’s voice immediately began to come through. “Good job. I’ll wire some of the money from the monsters you killed plus a little bonus.”

“Thanks.” Austin responded meekly.

“Also,” Young began, “The hell did you do in front of the media, we’ve already gotten a couple inquiries about you.”

Austin blushed a bit, “I kind of jumped two stories to get away from them when they surrounded me.”

He heard Young whistle from the other side of the phone.

“That’ll do it. Alright. As per our deal you’ll remain anonymous, but I’m assuming you’ll want to continue to work like this rather than showing up unofficially to breaks?”

“That would be nice. I don’t want to have to fight the Association.” Austin replied.

“Good.” Young responded, before ending the call.

Austin put his phone away, and getting his bearings made his way to the nearest bus stop to go home. As he approached the stop, however, he realized something.

“I’m really hungry.”

He wasn’t sure if it was because he had spent all of his stamina in the fight, or if it was because he hadn’t eaten since breakfast, but Austin was famished.

He started to look around for a place to eat and settled on an appetizing looking diner and walked through the door, jingling the bell that hung over it as he entered.

“Welcome!” A large, heavyset man with a bushy brown beard and a stained apron called cheerfully from behind the counter. “Take a seat anywhere and someone’ll be by to get’cha.”

The interior of the diner was cozy, with a red checkered floor and upholstered bar stools surrounding metal tables placed everywhere, it had a solid ‘40’s feeling to it.

Austin headed over to a small booth clearly meant for couples on a date, slung his sword and bag onto the seat and sat opposite of them. He began looking over the menu when a girl around his age came out to greet him.

She was quite tall, with shoulder length brown hair. She smiled at Austin and began the usual thoroughfare.

“Hi my name is Shelby and I’ll be your waitress. Can I get you something to drink, any appetizers to get started?”

Austin smiled in response to her friendliness. “Uh, I’ll just have water, and I’ll need a bit more time.”

“Alrighty.” she responded, a bit too enthusiastic for the situation, and left.

Just for the fun of it, Austin activated Warrior’s Sense and looked at her.

Shelby Williams: Level 7

Class: None

“Woah, she’s higher leveled than a normal person. I wonder if she’s a crawler…”

When she returned with Austin’s water, he decided to ask her.

“Ms. Shelby, are you perhaps a Crawler?”

She looked stunned. “Whuh? How can you tell something like that?”

Austin was suddenly stuck. He didn’t expect that question, so he tried to come up with something on the spot. “Umm, let’s just say I can sense mana and leave it at that.”

She seemed to buy the lie, even though it wasn’t a total lie, and continued. “I awoke a couple of years ago, apparently my aptitude for mana control is quite high, so I was ranked as a 2-Star.”

“A 2-Star!? At Level 7 that means her starting stats must be incredible!”

Austin looked at her suspiciously, “So what’re you doing working at this restaurant?”

She looked sheepish. “It’s my dad’s restaurant. Anyways, I can guess you’re a crawler based on that sword there.”

“Yeah. I actually just got back from a dungeon.” Austin responded.

“Oh, then where’s your party?” Shelby asked.

“Oh, uh, I um, don’t have a party.” Austin said, once again self-conscious.

Shelby looked stunned. “You’re a solo clearer?! Not many Crawlers can pull that off, how tough was the one you just did?”

“It was around 3-Stars.” Austin guessed based on the levels of the monsters.

In reality the dungeon was probably a 4-Star because of the environmental hazards inside, but he wasn’t sure.

Shelby’s eyes went even wider. “Wow! How come I’ve never heard of you. A Crawler who can solo clear a 3-Star would get famous pretty quickly.”

“I’m pretty new.” Austin responded. “Anyway, I’ve wasted enough of your time, I know what I want to order now.”

“Oh, um, of course.” Shelby snapped back to reality and took his order to the kitchen.

She returned a few minutes later with his food and placed it on the table, but something was slightly off based on how she was acting before.

Austin thought nothing of it and enjoyed his meal, when he was finished, he reached for one of the napkins that she brought out with his food, and noticed a note on the bottom of it.

It read. “Here’s my number, I know you said you don’t have a party, but maybe you could take me on a raid with you?”

Austin blushed. This was the first time he had ever gotten someone’s number. Even though it was technically for business, he still felt a bit giddy.

Austin stood, retrieved his things, and went to the counter to pay for his meal. When he was standing in front of her, Austin realized something.

“I keep forgetting how tall I suddenly am…” He had thought that Shelby was very tall when he was sitting in the booth. Before he got his powers, she probably would have been a full head taller than Austin, but as he was now she barely reached his chin.

She looked at him expectantly as he paid for his meal, and as he was leaving, he simply said, “I’ll see what I can do.”

Her face lit up like a christmas tree at these words, and Austin left the diner with a smile on his face as well.

As he rode the bus home, he had a thought.

“I’ve got plenty of money all of the sudden, maybe I should buy a car.”

It was already quite late into the evening, so Austin would have to go in the morning. In the meantime, after he got off the bus and started walking the rest of the way home, he did some research online about cars within his price range.

After he settled on a model, he found a dealership near him and resolved to go buy his first car in the morning.

Austin made his way up the stairs to his apartment, took off his clothes, and collapsed onto his bed. Even with his superior strength, today was particularly strenuous, and so he fell into a peaceful sleep.