Austin was early.

As he waited outside of the diner to pick up Shelby for their dungeon raid, he realized that he hadn’t checked his stats in a bit.

“I probably have quite a few bonus points to distribute…”

Austin McKenna, Level 57

Title: None

Class: Hero

HP: 410

Stamina: 460

Strength: 80

Intelligence: 68

Agility: 78

Abilities:

Quick Learner

Predecessor’s Guidance

Ant Slayer

Sword Mastery NEW (Level 2)

Avatar of the Champion

Warrior’s Sense

Condemn

Hero’s Slash

Hero’s Shield

Leap NEW

Bonus points: 8

“Hmm” Austin muttered, “I haven’t really done anything with intelligence, but it’s still gone up quite a bit. I don’t feel any smarter, though…”

He decided to keep ignoring that stat for the time being, as it was more important for mages anyways, and put six bonus points into strength and two into agility.

Because he had developed Leap spontaneously through a repeated action, Austin was deep in thought about strategies to develop more useful abilities when a tap on the window made him jump.

He rolled it down and saw Shelby’s smiling face outside of his car. Standing behind her was the large man Austin had seen behind the counter when he had eaten here previously.

He stepped out of the car and the man approached him.

Shelby looked surprised when she saw the kitchen knife in her father’s hand as he approached Austin. As soon as he was in range, he thrust forward as hard as he could, but the knife only struck air.

Faster than the man could see, Austin was behind him. He grabbed the cook’s arm and twisted it behind his back before plucking the knife from him like a parent taking a toy from their child.

“DAD!!! What the heck!” Shelby screamed.

The man chuckled. “Alright, that’s enough. Couldja please let my arm go?”

Austin compiled and released him. Shelby’s father spun around and held out his hand for a shake.

Austin took it, confused.

“Matthew Williams, pleased to meet you. I just wanted to make sure you could take care of her before I let you go. If you couldn’t beat little old me, how the heck wouldja keep her safe in a dungeon.”

Austin sighed and introduced himself. “Austin McKenna.”

Then he got a glint in his eye, deciding to test something out, Austin handed the knife back to Matthew.

Activating Warrior’s Sense, he checked the man’s level.

Matthew Williams: Level 0

Class: None

“As I thought. He’s a normal person. He probably can’t hurt me even if he wanted to.”

“Mr. Williams.” Austin began, “If you really want to settle your worries, go ahead and stab me. I won’t dodge this time.”

Matthew looked extremely confused for a moment, but then it seemed that he understood what Austin was going for. He wound back his arm and aimed a thrust for Austin’s left arm. A non-fatal would even in the worst case scenario.

As the blade met skin, instead of penetrating it just slid off of Austin’s arm without making a mark.

Austin gave Matthew a little smirk as if to say, “Satisfied” before turning to Shelby.

“Nothing to worry about, I understand his motives.”

Matthew gave Austin a final once over before nodding, hugging his daughter, and heading back inside of his restaurant.

“Honestly,” Shelby scoffed, “What was he thinking…”

Austin tried to calm her down, “It’s okay. It’s not like he could have hurt me.”

Shelby looked even more irritated, “That’s not what I was worried about! What if you killed him!”

Austin was taken aback. He hadn’t considered the possibility, but if he had a worse temperament, he could have easily killed Matthew in self defense.

“Oh-ummm…”

“Whatever, let’s just go.” Shelby said, climbing into the passenger seat.

As he got into his car, Austin had a thought. “I got through most of that conversation without stuttering!” It was a triumphant moment, but he did lose it at the end. Maybe pretending to be the cocky Savior was having an effect on him, or maybe he was just distracted by the man trying to kill him. Either way, it was a personal victory.

As he drove to the Door site, Shelby turned to him. “So what kind of dungeon is it?”

Austin responded, “Well-um, from scouting reports, it’s an open field type, likely goblin enemies. Pretty common for 1-Star dungeons. Don’t worry, it will be a cakewalk.”

Austin thought a moment before asking a question. “Hey, um, I know you said you can use magic, but what kind am I working with here?”

Shelby responded, “I have high affinity for support and healing, but I can also use a bit of attack magic. I’m still low level, though so it’s all quite weak.”

Austin fistpumped inwardly. “A healer! Sweet!” The fact that she had extremely high aptitude was also a really big plus, but Austin was confident that he could carry her to at least competence. A competent healer was still much more useful than having no healer at all.

“I wonder if I should ever bring her in on Savior, or just keep her around for raiding as Austin McKenna…”

As he was pondering this, he spoke again, “Also, umm, what do you have in the way of, you know, equipment?”

Shelby looked slightly embarrassed, “I, ah, don’t have any… Is that a problem?”

Austin chuckled, “Nah, it’s good. We can get you a dagger from one of the goblins and some leather armor if that's what you’re going for. Though I hear that mages usually go with mail under a robe.”

“Thank you so much!” Shelby said.

“All good,” Austin responded, “Anyways, we’re here.”

He parked the car in a nearby side lot and the two of them got out. Austin retrieved his new claymore from the backseat and received a bit of a strange look as he hefted the massive sword with one hand. Austin tossed a backpack to Shelby, which she promptly slung over her back before the pair walked over to the Association employee guarding the gate to the cordoned off area.

Austin and Shelby flashed their IDs before being let in. As they approached the hole in space, he heard her suck in her breath slightly.

“I’ve never been this close to a door before…” She looked like a deer caught in a car’s headlights, and Austin thought she might bolt at any second.

“It’ll be alright.” Austin said before giving her a gentle shove through the portal.

He stepped through after her and onto an open, grassy plain much like the one he had gone through with Griggs’s team.

Shelby punched him in the arm, then immediately clutched at her hand in pain. “Ow ow ow! Why did you push me!”

Austin stuttered, “You, um, looked like you were about to run away, so I um, helped you out a bit.”

She drew her arm back to hit him again, then thought better of it and let it fall to her side.

“Whatever, so what are we supposed to do now?”

Austin scanned their surroundings, he then spotted a line of smoke rising in the distance, just like last time.

He pointed in that direction, “See that smoke line, that’s a camp, and where we’ll probably find the boss.”

She squinted and looked in the direction he was pointing before letting out a big sigh, “I don’t see anything, but I’ll just follow you.”

“Hmm,” Austin thought, “Guess upping intelligence might be useful, I can definitely see farther than I used to be able to, and my senses are sharper. Maybe that’s how I reacted to Matthew so quickly…”

The two of them set off in the direction of the smoke, but this time there wasn’t a forest in between them and their destination.

As they hiked, Austin heard footsteps nearby, and when he turned in that direction, he grabbed Shelby and forced her to the ground to hide in the grass.

“What’re you doing!” She almost yelled, but Austin quickly shushed her.

“There’s a group of goblins heading our way, probably a patrol of some kind. I’ll take care of it, you just stay down.”

She nodded her understanding before Austin stood up and brazenly walked towards the group of goblins.

There were about 15 of them total, all of them below Level 20, not even coming close to being a match for Austin, even outside of his empowered form.

It didn’t take the group too long to notice him, and he called out to them tauntingly to keep their attention away from the hidden Shelby.

He charged at them and took a massive swing with his claymore, decapitating 4 of the goblins in one stroke.

One of the goblins charged at him from the side and attempted to drive it’s dagger in between his ribs, but before it had the chance, Austin reared back and sent it flying with a powerful kick. Spinning on his heel, he drove his foot into the face of another goblin before swinging his claymore again dispatching a trio of goblins this time.

Half a dozen left. Two more charged at him and he beheaded them easily. The last few goblins, having seen their superior numbers decimated by a lone combatant, turned to run away. Maybe they hoped that they would be able to get help of some kind, or maybe it was just pure fear, but Austin wasn’t going to let them get away.

He dashed forward, but instead of killing this group he swept their legs from under them using the flat of his sword. With them on the ground, Austin quickly pinned the group together underneath the weight of his claymore.

“Shelby, Cmmere!” He called out, before seeing her spring up from the grass and come over to him.

“Th-that was incredible!” she exclaimed.

“That was my first fight in a while where I didn’t level up. Guess these guys are too weak to mean much, even with my massive multiplier…”

As he was pinning them down, Austin directed Shelby to grab one of the dead goblin’s daggers and finish off the four that he had down.

He wouldn’t make the mistake of letting them go too early like Anderson had way back in his first dungeon, though.

After the four were dead, he asked her “Did you level up?”

She responded with a smile on her face, “Yeah!”

“Sweet!” Austin once again fist pumped internally. As he was doing so, a message popped up in front of him.

Alert! Skill “Predecessor’s Guidance” has been upgraded to “Savior’s Guidance”

Austin was confused, as he thought Predecessor’s Guidance just showed him descriptions of his abilities, so he checked his stats screen.

Abilities:

Savior’s Guidance NEW:

Allows the Savior to guide others to aid them in their endeavors. Grants allies a doubled experience bonus.

“Holy Crap!” Austin thought, “This is amazing!”