“What the heck is he doing here?” the question struck Clover for the second time that day as he noticed Stav racing toward Adam and the monster. Still stunned by the strange scene, he began to piece together the puzzle that had dropped itself in his lap. The cold intensified, and the Giant Grasshopper slowed further.

A split second later - before he could figure out what was going on, Stav dove in front of the child, shielding him from harm. Quite heroically, the old man took the blow meant for Adam and awkwardly rolled to safety. The only problem was that he wasn’t getting up, and the grasshopper was winding up for another swing of its claw.

Immediately, Clover sent his two strongest golems, Bob the Elephant and Mr. Cat onto the scene. They charged through the chaotic battlefield, passing monsters and humans alike. Combatants moved in excess of 30 miles per hour, kicking up dust. Additionally, so many magical effects were going off that it was hard to tell where they had originated from.

Before the monster could chop off Stav’s head like an angry chef, his elephant-golem smashed into the Giant Grasshopper, knocking it away. At the same time, Mr. Cat grabbed onto Adam and Stav and brought them to safety. Of course, the angry grasshopper didn’t just watch, allowing him to do whatever he pleased uncontested, but Bob the Elephant was a brick wall that the monster could not pass.

A couple [Mana Bolt]s, and the monster was no longer a problem. The scavenging group had shuffled into the hotel lobby, reaching a relatively safe location.

Congratulations! Mana Bolt has reached Level 28.

Congratulations! You have slain a Giant Grasshopper - Level 11. +297 Exp.

During the frantic sequence of events, two of his weaker golems had been reduced to rubble. But that was okay. For the first time in the fight, Clover could take a deep breath and take stock of the situation. He now had time to think.

While trying to not be distracted by the bursts of magic that the more long-range focused fighters launched from around him, he scanned the battlefield. His eyes stopped on the boss monster. It was standing at the edge of the grass, behind all the other monsters, and it was staring directly at him.

A fraction of a second later, the intelligent monster shimmered and launched another snowglobe of deadly green fire at the hotel lobby. Clover narrowed his eyes. The angle of the attack was slightly off - like it hadn’t originated from the Boss Monster.

Before the globe of glass could reach the hotel lobby, Paul intercepted it with a [Mana Bolt], causing the attack to detonate in mid-air, raining down tongues of fire around the building. Thankfully, no one was seriously injured.

“We need to kill the Boss Monster. If that big green blob dies, all the other grasshoppers will freeze up for a couple seconds. I think,” Clover said as loud as he could, only voice cracking once in the face of his social anxiety.

No one responded or even acted like they had heard him.

“We need to kill the Boss Monster. Everyone concentrate your attacks on that big green blob. If we kill it, all the other monsters will freeze up for a couple seconds,” someone Clover didn’t know said at the top of his lungs.

“Good idea, Joe.”

Hey, that was my idea. Clover couldn’t bring himself to be angry. As long as the plan got communicated, that was all that mattered.

In a semi-organized manner, they launched an attack on the Boss Monster, hoping to catch it by surprise. But as their barrage of magic landed, the Giant Grasshopper’s form flickered, and the attacks passed through it without resistance.

Intangibility? No, that would be too powerful. Which means… “It’s an illusion clone thingy,” Clover yelled at the top of his lungs, doing his best to communicate clearly.

“It’s an illusion,” Joe parroted, significantly louder.

As the words left Joe’s mouth, a section of air behind him shimmered, and the Boss Monster appeared, swinging its sharp claws. Before anyone could react, Joe lost his head, literally and figuratively.

Mouth agape, Clover watched on in shock as a spray of blood splattered against his pants. The man’s head bounced across the floor. It was a weird and disconcerting feeling - with his perception so high, the moment seemed to drag on forever.

Satisfied with one kill, the Boss Monster dashed backward, small changes sweeping across its form as it grew stronger from the violence. Unwillingly to let it escape so easily, Clover forced down the urge to throw up and maneuvered his two large golems, cutting off the Giant Grasshopper's escape path outside the building.

But it was all for naught. The green monster flexed its wings and flew over his golems, escaping into the sky. [Mana Bolt]s whizzed past it. Before Clover’s group could launch a proper counterattack, the Boss Monster landed safely at the edge of the grass field and shimmered lightly as another illusion took its place.

Clover's heart raced as his thoughts echoed along even faster. He could have easily died instead of Joe. It was pure luck he was still alive. To make matters worse, they had clearly underestimated the Boss Monster. It was intelligent - scarily so. He wasn’t sure they could win with such a small fighting force. A blue screen appeared, stopping his fears from circling out of control.

Congratulations! Your Class: [Blank] has reached Level 15. +5 Stat Points.

This whole time he had been earning partial kill Exp from his golems that were still in the thick of the battle. Clover put the 5 Stat Points into Agility, increasing his ability to respond to surprise attacks like the one the Giant Grasshopper had just unleashed.

Clover clenched his fist and activated [Meditation]. The moral doubt of whether this was the right thing to do, the unanswerable question of how to respond to the doctor’s mind control, and the looming guillotine that was his cancer - all his doubts and concerns faded to the background as he used [Meditation] and [Golem Link] in conjunction to help search for the Boss Monster.

Suddenly, a shift swept across his perception, bringing everything into focus. Flows of Mana that were once hidden revealed themselves to him, bringing to life a whole new world of color. A series of blue boxes appeared, and strangely enough, he was able to read them while still carefully scanning the battlefield; he juggled both tasks with ease.

Class Skill Quest Complete:

-Meditate for 10/10 hours.

-Meditate uninterrupted for 1/1 hours.

-Perceive what lies beyond the mundane 10/10.

Skill: [Meditation] removed.

Reward: Abyssal Perception of a Fragmented Mind Level 0 (Rare) -

The Abyss is the realm of memories, magic, and souls. Using your uniquely fragmented mind, peer into it to gain increased Mana Regeneration, multitasking ability, and an increased perception of the supernatural in this realm and the next. Beware, as a side effect, Health Points may be lost at random intervals.

Path Completed: The Monster Behind the Curtain.

The soul casts a long shadow. The sum total of a being's memories and history; its manifestation corrupts everything its gaze lands upon to match its own image. By looking within the Abyss and perceiving the manifestation of their soul, gain insight into their intentions. Unlocks your sight to now see an additional facet of reality. + Increased Perception while peeking behind the curtains of the soul.

Path Completed: What Lies Beyond.

Within the Abyss, time and space do not follow their usual rules. For this reason, many seek its secrets. However, nothing comes without a cost. Some knowledge was not meant to be known, and some secrets are better left buried. Follow in their fading footsteps - open a path to the Abyss. Who knows what you will find, or what will find you? Unlocks the ability to create windows into the Abyss. + Slight increase of control over unaligned atmospheric Mana.

While he was aware now wasn’t the perfect time to read through System announcements - ya’know with the giant monster trying to assassinate him and everything, he felt it was worthwhile to carefully read through the messages to get a handle on how his abilities had changed. Having access to what amounted to two separate trains of thought decreased the risk of his actions immensely, but his heart still raced every second he wasn’t able to put his full focus on the battle.

Because of this, he didn’t dwell too long on the meaning behind what he read; he was only after the essentials. Though, he did note that the name of his Skill had changed. [Meditation] was supposed to upgrade into [Abyssal Perception of the Still Mind], however, something changed, and now he had [Abyssal Perception of a Fragmented Mind]. Clover didn’t like what the change implied. His mind was very not fragmented, or whatever the opposite of the word was supposed to be, thank you very much.

Clover pulled his distracted second train of thought back on topic and had it join him in its search for the Boss Monster. He supposed he didn’t actually have two voices in his head focusing on separate things; it was more like - well, Clover was coming up blank with the limited brain power he had allotted to the task.

While searching the hotel lobby with his magical senses for any hint of the monster’s presence, he found a shattered glass thread linking him to Stav - almost in the same exact way, he was connected to Dr. White. He moved on, not having the time to investigate further.

Congratulations! Abyssal Perception of a Fragmented Mind has reached Level 1.

He pushed his attention further out on the battlefield, straining his magical senses to perceive something so far away. As his gaze passed individuals on the battlefield, an uneven and lumpy dome of barely visible fog would bellow out from them. When he glanced away, the dome would disappear. They all were different shapes, sizes, and colors - only sharing basic similarities with each other. Some couldn’t even be described as a fog, sharing a closer resemblance to fire, water, or a donut.

Even the monsters were surrounded by a similar translucent fog. However, in the case of the monsters, they were small and misshapen - barely stretching past their skin.

The longer he looked, the more apparent it became that this was the outward influence or shadow that their souls cast upon the world. At least that’s what the Path completion message led him to believe.

Congratulations! Abyssal Perception of a Fragmented Mind has reached Level 2.

It wasn’t like he was actively analyzing what he saw, but with the increase in brain power afforded to him by [Abyssal Perception of a Fragmented Mind], these conclusions almost came naturally to him.

All the extra things he could now see almost made his search for the Boss Monster more difficult. A minute later, he finally found what he was looking for. Of course, he couldn’t see it using his mundane senses, the monster was invisible, but his newest Skill revealed a faint black cloud of light, slowly creeping toward the stone wall that the close ranger fighters had rallied around.

His golems and the fighters outside were broadly speaking beating the monster, but if the Boss Monster was allowed to pick them off with impunity, that would quickly change.

Congratulations! Abyssal Perception of a Fragmented Mind has reached Level 3.

“Watch out; the invisible grasshopper is behind you!” Clover yelled. Over the sounds of combat - metal clashing against claws and magic exploding, they were unable to hear him. If Joe was still here, they would have heard.

Clover frowned and left the safety of the hotel lobby, driving closer to the thick of the battle, unwilling to let the intelligent monster assassinate another person.

Congratulations! Driving has reached Level 6.

A clump of air shimmered, and the illusion faded, revealing the Giant Grasshopper swinging its claws toward shovel-guy’s back, catching him completely unaware. However, Clover was prepared. He had carefully watched the monster’s approach, and the second it dispelled its invisibility he had launched a barrage of Mana Bolts at it, forcing it to jump back out of the way.

Congratulations! Mana Bolt has reached Level 29.

Congratulations! Barrage has reached Level 11.

Once again, the slippery monster dodged backward, avoiding their counterattacks. However, the grasshopper wasn’t perfect; it wasn’t a master of kung fu. A curving [Mana Bolt] courtesy of Paul heavily crunched into its side, causing it to stagger.

Clover watched with his magical senses as Paul prepared another curving bolt of magic, committing the process to memory. Before the Boss Monster could take more damage, it disappeared behind its compatriots and then used its invisibility Skill again. But that didn’t allow it to hide from Clover. He carefully followed its movements from the corner of his eye, trying to not let the monster know that he could see it.

At the same time, he mentally replayed the technique Paul had used, learning from his process.

When the time came for the Giant Grasshopper to strike again, Clover was ready.

As the air shimmered and the monster appeared, Clover used what he had learned from watching Paul. First, there was a gap between activating a Skill and its effects manifesting. It was extremely short - a cast-time of sorts, but with practice and intent this time could be extended, allowing more time to change the Skill’s effects. It was easy to miss, but now that he knew it was there, he could spot it.

He activated [Mana Bolt], feeling magic gathering in his hand, but not forming a concrete shape yet. In the past, most of his failures had stemmed from this early stage. It was easier to change something that didn’t exist - there was no resistance. However, that also meant there were no scaffolds to help with the construction, but for something as simple as a [Mana Bolt] and with the System heavily assisting him, he didn't need any.

Bing.

The next part of the process he was unsure about. Due to how far away he was, he hadn’t been able to see the exact details of what Paul had done and the pure absurdity of it left him confused. What looked to be a memory entered the Mana construct, indirectly shaping it. At least, that's what it looked like when watching through the new senses that his Skills and Paths gave him. In a way, it reminded him of the process he used with [Golem Creation], giving him some grounding on what to do, but why something like that would work eluded him.

Nevertheless, he tried. His mom had always said confidence was important, and she was good at throwing baseballs too, so her advice was doubly true. Fumbling around blindly, he tried to have the ball of Mana sprout around the idea of curving - the memory of curving. For a moment, he gathered all his confidence and faked the memory that his attacks had always been able to curve.

With a heavy resonance, blue balls of Mana began to form around him.

Bong.

Now, came the last part - the only part he was any good at. As the Boss Monster swiped its claw at Ron’s unsuspecting back, he fired off the Mana Bolt’s, doing his best to aim them.

Bang!

The bolts of magic curved through the air, carving an unavoidable arc. With a blast, they connected with the monster, blowing off its right wing in an explosion of green blood and crumpling its right side. Catching on to what was happening, those around the injured monster attacked. However, smaller grasshoppers hopped in front of the attacks, shielding the Boss Monster from further harm with their bodies.

Congratulations! Mana Bolt has reached Level 30.

Congratulations! Barrage has reached Level 12.

Many Giant Grasshoppers died, but the Boss Monster survived. Even with its severe injuries, the monster did not die. If anything, the damage lit a fire within the monster, driving it to fight harder. Its eyes glowed red as it shook its one remaining wing, creating a sharp buzzing sound.

From the field of grass, 15 more Giant Grasshoppers emerged, ready to join the fight, replenishing their numbers.

As an intense headache brewed behind his eyes, Clover checked his Mana. It was almost full courtesy of [Abyssal Perception of a Fragmented Mind]. His lips twitched upward. He could win.