These things came out of the shadows. They had humanoid appearances with long claws. With no face, they were more intimidating. They showed no hesitation when ripping apart the adventurers.

Shadow Wraith Level: 68 Health: 450

These monsters were almost B-rank in level. They were glass cannons. Low health in exchange for high agility and the ability to rip apart C-rank or lower adventurers easily. I stood unwavering on the frontline. These monsters wouldn't get past me. Ever. They descended upon me in waves. Every time I killed one, another showed up. My anger slowly grew, until Controlled Berserking activated. As I swung, groups of Wraiths were taken out. I didn't bother to dodge or deflect anymore, there were too many. I held my ground while directing my anger at the Wraiths.

-Jane's POV-

I killed another group of Shadow Wraiths to try to thin out the horde but to no avail. They kept rushing out of the darkness. It was currently night time, and we would have to brave this for another three hours before dawn came. That was when I saw it. Michael went berserk. This would be the second time he went berserk in a fight. Claws swiped at him from all sides, but he just shrugged them off while delivering devastating counterattacks. He didn't even try to deflect anymore. There were too many attacks to do so. I watched as he prepared a swing and obliterated about 10 wraiths at once.

I used an area ice spell to support him as he rampaged through the enemy horde. His armor was ragged at this point, filled with scratches and his duster had holes and scratches on it. He had a very ragged look but kept fighting. All this just to keep me safe.

-Michael's POV-

As the battle drew on, the adventurers rallied behind me. I was like a raging tempest ripping through the wraiths. The hurricane that kept the others safe in the eye of the storm. We slowly pushed them back and the others managed to set up a defensive perimeter. We defended restlessly for three straight hours until the crack of dawn came and those vile things retreated back into the place they came from. As they left, the adrenaline that was keeping me from collapsing went away. Extremely exhausted, I fell to my knees. I tried to keep myself up using my sword as a prop, but it didn't work. I fell on my face, and the last thing I heard was Jane's voice before I went unconscious.

When I woke up, I felt myself laying down on a soft bed. We made it to a village out of the Shadow Wraith's territory. I got up and felt sluggish. This must have been the after-effect of exiting the berserker state. I felt that I wouldn't be able to fight properly without a few days of rest. Looking around, I heard footsteps and the door opened. Jane poked her head inside the room and saw me awake. She immediately ran over and jumped on me, hugging me tightly.

"You idiot, I thought you were actually going to die." Tears fell from her eyes as she kept me in her embrace. I hugged her back with my arm and realized I had bandages around my torso, arm, and legs. She pressed her head into my chest and I comforted her. "There was so much blood, and your breathing was so weak. I don't know what I would do if you left me like that."

"It's ok, Jane. I'm fine, aren't I? More importantly, are the survivors ok?" I asked that question since I stayed on the front lines for the others in the caravan.

"They're fine. We lost a good amount of adventurers. They were all C-rank or lower. We buried them in this town." Jane told me in a solemn voice. She kept me in a tight hug and I let her keep hugging me.

My battered armor and duster were on a table next to me. The town's blacksmith and leatherworker did their best to repair my gear, but some of it had was beyond repair. The items permanently lost a few durability points but they gained a tattered look that I kinda liked. The duster was now worn at the bottom and had a few slash marks on it. The armor had a few scratches here and there. I looked down at Jane and kissed her before getting up off the bed.

"I'll have to rest for a few days before we can leave, Jane. The fatigue from berserk-ing is making me really sluggish right now." I explained to her. She nodded and thought I would need a break after fighting intensely for that long.

I put on some casual wear as I was only wearing boxers while I was out. My sword was on a separate table from the armor. It looked the same as usual save for a few signs of wear on the leather wrapped around the handle. I swear, this thing was too durable. I put on a leather strap and hooked my greatsword on it. I walked over and stored the armor in my inventory. Before we left the building, I checked my status since I killed around two hundred of those Shadow Wraiths.

You have reached a level milestone! Due to your method of achieving this, you have been compensated with status points. Name: Michael Adkins Class: Controlled Berserker of the Greatsword Arts Race: Human, Male Level: 53 Titles: Greatsword Enthusiast, Gifted By God, Controlled Berserker Class Effects: +60 to Strength, Agility, Dexterity, Vitality, Control; Doubles at level milestones; Going into a controlled berserker state increases your stats by a factor of 2x; Blind rage increases stats by a factor of 4x Attack: 732 Defense: 286 Health: 1150/1300(1350) Mana: 400/400 Health Regen: 0.675/sec Mana Regen: 0.2/sec Strength: 200(+260) Agility: 75(+135) Dexterity: 70(+130) Vitality: 75(+60) Intelligence: 50 Wisdom: 40 Luck: 22 Leadership: 16 Control: 30(+60) Rage: 15 Skills: Greatsword Mastery, Throwing Mastery, Heavy Armor Mastery, Wind Enchant, Pain Tolerance, Sneak Attack, Cooking, Trap Disarming, Danger Sense, Deflect, Controlled Berserking, Blind Rage, Bartering, Persuasion Title Effects:

Greatsword Enthusiast: 1.2x Attack with Greatswords, 1.3x Durability with Greatswords, 1.1x Attack Speed with Greatswords

Gifted By God: 2x modifier to Strength, Dexterity, and Agility; Maximum Greatsword Mastery; 2.5x Experience Modifier

Controlled Berserker: Allows you to control your anger and direct it onto one enemy, creating an intimidating aura; Controlled Berserking bonus increased to 2.5x from 2x

My class didn't evolve, but maybe it only evolved on the first milestone. All kinds of speculations flew around in my head as I left the building with Jane. She brought me over to where the rest of the caravan was. Everyone's eyes lit up when they saw my figure approaching them.

"Look! It's Michael! He survived the fight!" An adventurer yelled out. Everyone started cheering and shouting my name. I was surprised, I didn't know I would contribute this much to the survival of these people. I scratched the back of my head and laughed awkwardly. A familiar blue haired person made their way over to me.

"Michael, you survived! Oh man, I thought you would go under from that fight." Ethan said to me, relieved.

"I'm pretty tired after that. How long was I out?" I asked.

"Two days. You were out for two whole days." Ethan said to me. I was shocked. Two whole days, either the aftereffect of berserking was more serious than I thought or the fatigue from the battle was just that much.

"I still need a few more days of rest. I'm feeling really sluggish right now." I said wearily.

"Everyone here does. We don't plan to leave until you recover anyways. If anything as bad as those damn wraiths attack us again, you and Jane are our best bet." Ethan explained to me.

"Excuse me, Michael?" A shy voice sounded out from behind Ethan. It was a girl who was about 1.6 meters tall. She wore an expensive looking robe with runes lining it and a staff with a glowing crystal in it. Judging by her gear, she was probably the daughter of a famous mage family. "My name is Elsie Cipius. Thank you for saving us, we probably would have been dead without you. How can I repay you for this?" She asked me sincerely. I noticed she had ears that were a bit shorter than an elf's but too long for a human.

I pondered over the question until an idea popped into my head. I pulled my severed arm out from my inventory and asked her an important question, "Can you reattach my arm?"

"Unfortunately, no. The arm has been separated for a long time. It's been too long to reattach it. However, my family can contact some people to construct a metal prosthetic for you. We'll make it out of Mithril to fully compensate for saving my life. I'm the next heir of the Cipius family of mages after all. A prosthetic is nothing compared to saving my life. At least, that's what my father would say." She gave a smile after telling me this. I was elated since I would finally be able to have two arms again. I stored my old arm back into my inventory and went back to the inn to rest. This was an unexpected boon.

The few days passed by quickly. Once I was fully rested, I put on my armor and went outside. I met Jane outside and we headed to the caravan. Once everyone was ready, we set off for Krell once more.

Two weeks passed before we arrived. We had a few skirmishes with monsters on the way here, but nothing more than that. Everyone managed to get into the town smoothly. I noticed that Jane and I were C-rank now. Our cards automatically updated the ranks to our current levels. As we entered, I looked around. The entire city was bustling with activity. The richer people were closer to the middle, while commoners and the like were near the edge of the city. The Adventurer's Guild was located near the center of this city and was apparently just as grand as Lerton.

Ethan stopped to compensate everyone for completing his request. Everyone agreed to have him pay Jane and I a little bit of extra money for our contribution in fighting the Wraiths off. Elsie gestured for us to follow her and we said our goodbyes to the rest of the caravan.

Following Elsie, we arrived at a mansion. "You can both stay here while I tell my father about what happened." Jane and I sat down on the comfortable couches and waited for her to come back. We soon heard rushed footsteps and saw a couple along with Elsie appear from a stairway in front of us. The man was a high elf, with blonde hair and blue eyes. The woman was a human, and she had pink hair with silver eyes. They rushed over to us and thanked us profusely.

"Thank you for saving our daughter. Thank you so much. I don't know what we would do if we lost our only daughter." I was taken aback, I thought they would be the arrogant kind of people. Turns out they were really nice.

"No problem. Now, about that prosthetic." I immediately went into business mode with a business smile on my face. I really wanted that prosthetic arm.

"Of course, we'll make arrangements right away. Feel free to stay here whenever you want, for as long as you want." The woman said to me. "By the way, I'm Sofia Cipius. My husband here is Aiden Cipius." She introduced herself along with her husband.

"I'll be glad to stay here with you two. Also, I'm Michael Adkins and this lovely lady here is Jane Crimson." I introduced myself and Jane. After a bit of conversation between us, I realized it was late evening. Sofia called out for a servant to show us to our room. I decided to take a bath and the servant led me to the bathroom. When I entered, I was amazed. The bath itself was huge and had windows where you could view the city. The windows themselves were tinted, so you kept your privacy while enjoying the view.

I placed a spare set of clothes in a basket by the bath and entered it. I sat down and relaced in the water. Closing my eyes, I heard footsteps from someone inside. When I turned around, I saw Jane with a towel wrapped around herself. She was blushing while looking at me bathing casually.

"What's up, Jane?" I was pretty sure I knew what she wanted to do, but I wanted confirmation just in case.

"I wanted to join you in the bath..." Jane managed to get those words out while letting her towel drop. Her naked body appeared before me and I felt a fire rising up in my crotch. She looked even more flustered and promptly sat down next to me in the bath. Looks like I was right.

"Michael, h-have you ever had sex before?" Jane said while looking into my eyes. Her flushed face seemed so much cuter than usual and I immediately placed my lips on hers. She reacted by getting in front of me and reaching for my crotch. After adjusting it, she said something I was prepared for. "I'm putting it in Michael..." She lowered herself onto my manhood and a little bit of blood came up. Jane then started moving while I started fondling her breasts and tail.

"Ah, d-don't do t-that Michael. I-t's even m-more sensitive r-right now..." She started letting out moans as I continued fondling her tail and breasts. After a while, I felt something was about to come out.

"Jane. I'm... about to come soon." I informed her with a bit of difficulty.

"It's ok, you can let it out inside me..." She hugged me tightly and soon some white liquid entered her. Both of us climaxed at the same time and she rested her tired body on mine. Barely any time passed before she started moving again, a wicked grin on her face. I was intimidated and wanted to get away, but she grappled me and held me in place with an unprecedented amount of strength even I couldn't resist. "We're going to have a lot of fun, Michael..." Jane said this with an evil tone as she proceeded to have sex with me for the next half an hour.

After we finished "bathing", I was exhausted and wanted to get some sleep. The excitement of getting a new arm was overpowered by the exhaustion from having sex with Jane. I'll admit, she was really tight down there. A servant led the blushing Jane and exhausted me to our room.

The room itself was huge. It was about ten by ten meters and had a balcony to view the city from. The bed was probably large enough to fit six people and there were basic accommodations in the room. Crystals similar to the ones at the Boisterous Inn lit the room. I climbed into the bed with Jane and we started sleeping right away.

The next day, Jane and I were lead to the dining room where we had breakfast with the Cipius Family. We had a friendly light-hearted conversation and once breakfast was done, Elsie approached me. She held out a metal arm that had a silvery sheen to it. There were runes engraved on the surface of the metal and it had armor plating to keep it from breaking easily.

Mithril Mechanical Arm Damage: 460 Defense: 50(+21) Durability: 150/150(+63) Extra Effects: Unlocks use of Mage variant restricted spells; Spells have a 60% increase in effectiveness when casting from this arm A mechanical arm made by a master blacksmith. It boasts high defense and durability due to the Mithril it is made from.

The bonuses I got from Heavy Armor Mastery were insane. Currently, it had broken through to the Advanced level since I took a pretty good beating from those damn Wraiths. A lot of my skills broke through to advanced, actually. What I was confused about was the damage value. I pushed this thought aside as Elsie placed it where my left arm used to be and the runes on the arm lit up. I felt the metal attach to my skin and slowly feel more and more like my old arm.

When the runes stopped glowing, I moved it and it felt so natural. I looked at Elsie and gave her a bear hug before releasing her.

"Honestly, I can't thank you enough for this. This arm feels just like my old one." I moved it around some more and it moved exactly like I wanted it to. The look and feel were amazing and it looked even cooler with the runes engraved on it. "Also, how did you get it so fast?" I asked curiously.

"Well, it was something a blacksmith we once knew created. Nobody needed it though, so he left it with us and it's been collecting dust in the warehouse. Turns out we didn't actually need to contact anybody." Elsie explained. I nodded and looked back at the arm. "By the way, that arm has a little something hidden inside. Just flick the switch on your arm's hand." Elsie said to me.

I did as she said and a blade extended out over the back of the arm's hand. The blade was about eight inches long and two inches wide. I flipped the switch and it went back inside the vambrace. An ecstatic expression was on my face as I messed with the blade for a little bit. Once I got used to hitting the switch, I told Elsie of our plans.

"Elsie, Jane and I are probably going to stay in this town for a day or two before heading back to Lerton. There are certain people I need to train since I ranked up." Elsie nodded in approval.

"Do what you need to do. I'm still grateful to you for saving my life." Elsie saw us off while we left the mansion. Jane and I went to see if there were any interesting requests at the Guild. Once we arrived, we went over to the C-rank board. A bald burly man then bumped into me and Jane.

"Can you watch where you're going next time?" I asked him, a bit annoyed. I was willing to bet that he did it on purpose to piss me off. He completely ignored me and started hitting on Jane.

"Hey there, pretty lady. Wanna come with me? I'll show you a good time." His eyes were filled with lust and he had a wide grin on. The bald dude tried grabbing Jane but she disappeared and reappeared next to me.

"No thanks, I prefer Michael here more than your ugly face. Besides, I bet your dick is the size of an ant." Jane clung to my right arm as she said this.

"Huh?" He took a moment to process what Jane just said. Once he realized, his expression morphed into one of anger. "SAY THAT AGAIN BI-" Before he could continue, I grabbed his face using my new metal arm and raised him up.

"How about you shut the fuck up, you ugly bald-headed motherfucker?" I said with a pissed off expression. I proceeded to slam him headfirst into the ground, leaving a small crater in the middle of the hall. He started bleeding profusely. I got a bit of deja vu from this, but turned around and continued nonchalantly looking at the requests with Jane at my side.