Xavier stood in the Staging Room after they’d all just opened their loot boxes following the clearing of the Eleventh Floor.

Justin grinned—still looking like a kid on Christmas. He took a step back. “This is a situation where it’s better I show you, rather than tell you.”

The young man’s wings sprang from his back. Though Xavier had seen them plenty of times, he still stared at them a little awestruck. The ability to fly. It was one that he coveted. One that he could see being incredibly useful on the battlefield.

Maybe there’s a way for me to get that ability down the line…

A second after Justin’s wings had sprouted, something materialised on them. Metal armour. Xavier frowned. Armour on wings? Wouldn’t that mess up Justin’s ability to fly, with the armour making the wings heavier?

Justin leapt up into the air and soared around the Staging Room with ease. As far as Xavier’s eyes were concerned, the metal armour didn’t weigh the young man’s wings down at all. Justin reoriented his body, becoming upright in the air, then flapped his wings forward, sending him backward, and that’s when Xavier noticed the sharp blades at the top end of the wings.

The item wasn’t just armour. It turned his wings into some kind of weapon.

While in the air, Justin summoned his sword to his hand. He performed a combination of strikes. Wing, sword, wing. One, two, three. Wing, sword, wing. One, two, three.

Xavier could see how deadly the strikes might be against something around Justin’s level of power. Justin’s class was a swift damage dealer with the ability to effectively dodge attacks. It was almost rogue-like in a way.

After his quick demonstration, Justin swooped back down and landed in front of the others. “What do you think?” The kid was positively beaming.

Howard clapped him on the shoulder. “I think that’ll be pretty great in fight.”

Siobhan nodded. “It’s definitely unique.”

Xavier grinned. “I think that’s awesome.”

“There’s more,” Justin said. “The item is Soul Bonded. It will grow in power as I grow in power, which means, in theory, I’ll never need to upgrade it. It’s already stronger than my sword. Considerably. And, I can do this with them…”

Justin turned and faced one of the walls. He launched back in the air, hovering about five feet up. His left wing jutted forward. An Air Strike shot forth—something he would usually launch with his sword. It left a long slash in the stone wall.

After a moment, the stone wall healed itself, becoming smooth once more.

“Huh,” Justin said as he landed back down. “Didn’t know the walls did that.”

They turned to Howard, next. The man frowned.

“What is it?” Siobhan asked.

The former cop shook his head. “The item I got. It’s… interesting, to say the least.”

“Interesting how?” Xavier asked.

“Yeah, don’t leave us hanging like that,” Justin said. “Tell us what it is.” The young man was giddy, clearly excited to be back in the tower, going through the floors. “Is it turtle shell?”

Howard frowned. “A… turtle shell?”

“Yeah, well, you’re a tank. It could be something you retreat into.”

Xavier shook his head. “I’ve missed hanging out with you three.”

Howard grunted. “It’s not a turtle shell.” He raised a hand. A ring appeared in it. A ring with a clear gemstone. “This is called Martyr’s Revenge. It’s a one-use item.”

“One use?” Xavier asked. “How can it be one use? It’s a ring.”

Howard turned the ring around in his hand, catching the light. “Whenever I’m wearing this ring and take damage, the pain I feel is intensified.”

Siobhan stepped forward, her forehead creased, eyes pained. “Intensified? That sounds horrible.”

“I’m with her,” Justin said. “Why would you want something like that? Hardly sounds like a reward. Maybe there was a bug in the System.” He glanced up. “Though I probably shouldn’t have said that out loud.”

“You really think the System can’t read your mind?” Siobhan raised an eyebrow at Justin.

Justin bit his lip. “Damn.”

“And how much is it intensified?” Xavier asked, turning back to the subject at hand.

Howard blinked. He looked blankly at Xavier. “It’s intensified tenfold.”

Xavier shook his head. “Why on Earth would you ever want to put something like that on?”

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Though the downside of using the ring was admittedly terribly, Xavier had to imagine there was a strong upside when a cost like that was paid.

Howard looked down at the ring again. “It stores the damage. I mean, sort of. I still take the damage, but the same amount of damage is stored within the ring. It doesn’t say that it has a limit. And when I’m ready…” Howard trailed off.

Xavier understood. “You can use all the damage you’ve stored to attack an enemy.”

“One powerful hit.” Howard nodded. “Then the ring will disintegrate.”

“Barbaric,” Siobhan said. “But, as you said, it is rather interesting.”

“Good thing you don’t have to use it,” Justin said. “Going through that much pain… I mean, is it really worth it?”

At the same time as the young man spoke those words, Howard slipped the ring onto his finger. “I don’t have to use it. But… what if one day I need it? One if, one day, it’s the only thing that saves me. Or one of you.” He turned his gaze downward, staring at the ring. “Or my family.”

Xavier didn’t like the idea of Howard wearing such a ring. He was about to say so. He’d opened his mouth and everything. Then he imagined what it would be like if he were in the man’s shoes and had gotten an item like that. The potential damage the item could do against an enemy… it was huge. If damage was stored over thousands and thousands of encounters…

This could be an item that allows Howard to kill someone of a higher grade.

Xavier would wear it, wouldn’t he? He was glad it wasn’t the item that he’d received. He could certainly see how it might be more useful on a tank, as well, when their job in a party was to soak up damage.

The item still made him feel uncomfortable.

Howard would be feeling ten times as much pain as he had been before. But that was the man’s choice. If it ever became too much, he could always take the ring off.

“It’s up to you,” Xavier said after contemplating it. “I don’t like it, but I can’t blame you for wanting to use it.”

Siobhan dipped her head. Her frown intensified. Her eyes no longer looked pained. Now, they looked angry. But the woman didn’t say anything. She simply sighed and nodded slightly.

Then she turned to Xavier. “Do you want to test out your new item?”

“Yeah, what did you get?” Justin asked. “Of course we know it won’t be as cool as what I got.” Justin frowned, stared at Xavier’s eye. “Why is your eye red?”

Howard grunted. “I’ve been meaning to ask that myself.”

Xavier told them what item he’d received, and what it was capable of doing. Justin seemed the most intrigued of the two, but he could see Howard’s interest in it as well.

“That’s just… not fair,” Justin said. “Are you sure you don’t want to give it to me? I’ll trade you for it.”

Xavier wondered what the item would be like in the hands of someone like Justin. Giving the young man the ability to see three-hundred-and-sixty degrees around himself—and in a radius of one hundred metres—would definitely help him, considering the type of combat style Justin used.

For a moment, Xavier actually considered handing the item over to him. He didn’t need it, after all. Xavier was already incredibly overpowered as it was.

But he didn’t want to give it up.

“Sorry, Justin. I’m keeping it.” Xavier shrugged. “Besides, I thought whatever I got couldn’t be as cool as what you got?”

Justin looked at his armoured, bladed wings—he’d yet to retract them, even though he normally would once he’d stopped flying. Especially when they were outside of combat. He took a moment, then he nodded. “You’re right. A Farscope sounds lame compared to this.” He slashed the air with one wing, then the other, then grinned.

Xavier chuckled. “Siobhan’s right. It’s time I test this new ability.” He summoned his scythe-staff to his hands. “Anyone got earmuffs?”

Xavier ended up buying a few things from the System Shop. He wanted to block every sense but his eyesight, so that he could focus primarily on the Farscope’s ability. He even ended up wearing a blindfold, discovering that the Farscope didn’t need him to be able to see out through his eyes to function.

Now all he had was his ability to see everything for one hundred metres around him. Xavier knew there would be other ways to go about this. For instance, he could potentially split his mind, having different parts of his mind focusing on different senses, but that wasn’t the way he wanted to go.

Eventually, he wanted them all to work in concert.

He stood perfectly still and waited for the others to strike. It was strange, having his normal senses blocked and only using something new, but it was also a great way for him to force his brain to adapt to a new way of perceiving the world.

Justin and Howard, along with Siobhan’s Divine Guardian, approached him from three different sides. Considering Xavier was so much more powerful than the others, he knew even a three versus one sparring match was nowhere near an equal match-up, so he allowed the others to use every trick they had up their sleeves, and all he was supposed to do was dodge or block their attacks.

At first, Xavier felt incredibly clumsy. He was controlling his movement whilst looking at himself. It was a weird out of body experience. It felt more like controlling a character in a video game.

To Xavier’s surprise, Justin actually managed to get an Air Strike or two in, even though Xavier was way faster than the Airborne Duellist, he was simply too busy finding his footing.

A few minutes passed—with a few more hits getting through his guard—before Xavier began to get a better feel for it. He imagined if he was a much lower level, getting this far in the process might have taken him hours.

As it was, his body and mind worked much more swiftly.

Once twenty minutes of this had passed, something in Xavier’s mind clicked. He moved as smoothly as he ever had, and he was getting better and better at navigating his new sight ability.

There was something truly amazing about being able to see so much at once. Something expansive and right about it that he simply hadn’t felt the first time he’d accessed the new ability.

The way he moved was becoming more like a dance. Howard, Justin, the Divine Guardian—none of them could get close to him, and Justin’s ranged attacks were doing nothing at all.

Xavier was liking the item the System had given him more and more. He didn’t see it being all that useful to him now, but as the ability developed, and as the threats he faced became stronger…

Imagine if I had this when all those damned portals had been opening up and I was being peppered with arrows. They would have been so much easier to avoid.

Yes, this Farscope would do quite nicely.

They spent roughly forty-five minutes sparring like this. He could see how exhausted the others were. Justin and Howard were pushing themselves to their very limits with each second that passed.

Once Xavier felt satisfied, he called an end to the sparring match. He figured the others would need a break.

To his surprise, during the match, he’d actually gained two ranks in Evasion, bringing it up to Rank 52. He’d tried ranking Evasion up in sparring against them in the past, but it hadn’t worked.

He wondered if that was because of his new ability—maybe his Evasion skill was fusing with it somehow—or if his party members were simply growing in power better than he’d imagined.

Maybe it’s a bit of both.

Either way, it was time to move onto the next thing.