“You don't think endless hordes of monsters will make things worse,” Josh said flatly. “You're optimistic, aren't you?”

“You already have endless waves of monsters.” Hou Zheng shook his head, exasperated. “I really don't see why you are making such an issue of this.”

“There are hundreds of dungeons in this valley alone,” Josh snapped. “We don't have the manpower to clear all of them! And what happens when monsters start pouring out of these rifts? They head straight to the biggest population center!”

“Weak monsters. They will be below the level minimum. Even without the extra bloodstones, you will be able to handle—”

“Most monsters in dungeons are weak. But they get stronger quickly. Suck up the mana in the air and grow, that's how it works. And everyone knows that sometimes something crazy strong falls out of a rift. That's how this all started, with your boss deciding to slum it in a dungeon a tenth of his level!”

He didn't shout. He didn't want the guards outside to realize something was wrong. But he did raise his voice. He did almost yell. He spat his words at Hou Zheng, as if he could shame him into action.

It didn't work. Of course it didn't. The orc just gave him a flat, unimpressed look. “I am sorry, Mister White,” he said, as if he knew what that name meant. “Sorry that you are attached to the embers of a dying world. I feel that I have given you more than a reasonable compromise. I have promised safety for your loved ones, and what prosperity I can offer for your people. I am sorry that this is not good enough for you.”

Josh sagged. You couldn't shame anyone into seeing your point of view. You had to meet them on their own level, find out what drove them from behind and what they were reaching towards. It took time, patience, and intelligence.

Josh had always been terrible at diplomacy. He didn't have time, patience, or intelligence. For God's sake, he had conquered this village because he found their tax laws annoying. His sister was better at it. God, he wished she was here.

Of course, if his sister was here, then there was a good chance she would murder him for everything he had done since she left, so small blessings.

Speaking of things his sister would hate...

He crushed the runestone on his necklace to give him a quick boost to Power and Capacity. “Instant Crafting.”

Hou Zheng's head snapped up as the tunnel behind them, the only exit, was instantly filled with dirt and gravel. He rushed forward to touch the wall, while Josh dodged aside and downed a mana potion. Hou Zheng had that teleportation ability, though it was definitely limited. Josh wasn't worried about him breaking through—not quickly, at any rate. It probably wouldn't contain him forever.

It would definitely contain him for this fight.

Josh pulled out his ax, charged forward, and fed mana into his weapon as he brought it down. It wasn't a true magic weapon, but Ruth had finally gotten around to putting a gravity rune-chain on his ax. It was his fault it had taken too long, really. He kept losing his weapons, which made her reluctant to put real effort into enchanting anything for him.

His ax suddenly swung down with ten times the weight it should have, and Hou Zheng's mace was knocked aside like a weed before a breeze. It did give him half a second to step back, though, and Josh caught a few words in Chinese. They sounded like foul curses.

Distantly, Josh wished he had asked why elves were apparently Japanese and orcs were Chinese. He could already tell that was going to bug him for a long time. It wasn't exactly his main priority right now, though.

Josh sensed mana gathering in Hou Zheng's hands, and snapped out a punch. His Strength was still bad and he still had no real techniques, but a punch to the face rattled the brain no matter what. Hou Zheng cursed again, his spell disrupted.

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This time he went on the offensive, swinging his mace in wide sweeping arcs. He was clearly more concerned with forcing Josh back than actually hitting him. Unfortunately, even though Josh saw the trick, he still had to move. He had seen Hou Zheng fight enough to know that he didn't want to get hit. While he was a [Healer] instead of an [Attacker], he had a Strength that Josh just couldn't match.

For the ten thousandth time, Josh wished they had better magic items. Ruth's runes were more for making devices, less for making items that enhanced individuals. They still didn't have anyone with the right classes to make true boosting gear.

Of course, Josh knew his weaknesses. There was always a simple solution to facing someone with superior stats: Pure skill.

Josh dodged every one of Hou Zheng's broad sweeps as if it was a dance he had trained in for weeks. Between his experience and his high Perception, he could see every twitch of muscle, every shift of a foot. Josh knew exactly what his opponent was going to do before he did.

Hou Zheng might not be an [Attacker], but he wasn't an idiot either. He swept his mace with one hand, using the other to prepare another spell. Josh couldn't get close enough to interrupt him, at least not in time. Trying would just get him a mace to the gut.

White fire flared around Hou Zheng's hand, and he threw it forward, a screaming fireball that would consume everything in the tunnels.

That was what won Josh the fight.

He charged forward, ignoring the fire completely, to Hou Zheng's clear surprise. The fireball slammed against him, but his shroud flared. He felt a horrible flare of heat, so bad that it felt like his skin would crack, but nothing worse. He pushed through it in a moment, and his shroud even managed to survive.

It was funny how people used shrouds. Everyone was too eager to let it soak up hits. It would regenerate, after all, so why not let it do its job? Putting aside the wisdom of overusing a lifesaving magic item, Josh knew that this meant that if you dodged in combat, people tended to assume your shroud was depleted or broken entirely.

Besides, shrouds were better at absorbing magical damage than physical.

He pushed through the fire to see Hou Zheng's face, filled with gratifying shock. He tried to get his mace up in time to block, even as he scrambled back to give himself more space. However, he was still a [Healer]. If Josh had to guess, he thought that Hou Zheng had been running a [Healer] for a very long time. He didn't have the techniques that came with an [Attacker] class, nor the instincts that came with experience.

Josh might not have an actual [Combat] class, but there was no substitute for constantly fighting for your life. He had fought stronger enemies than this, at worse disadvantages.

Josh swung his ax with one hand, pushing mana into the rune-chain to suddenly increase its weight again. While Hou Zheng struggled to block that attack, Josh used his other hand to launch an [Empty Chop] at his head. Hou Zheng yelped as the magical attack caused his shroud to flare, and lost his focus on Josh's ax. It bit deep into the man's shoulder, and he howled in rage and pain like a wild animal. He stumbled back, ripping the ax out of his shoulder, and the wound bled profusely.

Then he tried to heal himself.

That was his last mistake.

He was a [Healer], so it was understandable. He knew he needed to get the bleeding stopped quickly. Josh's ridiculous Sensitivity score let him feel the magic Hou Zheng was gathering into a spell. It was quick and dirty, probably the magical equivalent of a bandage than a full restore. Hou Zheng likely thought that he would be able to get himself into fighting shape in seconds, then go back on the offensive.

Josh blasted him with another [Empty Chop], in the exact spot where his ax had bit down before. His shroud was already gone, so the art just bit deeper into the flesh, and Hou Zheng howled again. He stumbled, tripping on gravel and detritus on the stone floor. Josh moved in for the kill.

The shadows twisted between them, and suddenly Kun was there.

“No you don't!” Josh snarled. He threw another [Empty Chop].

Kun, however, appeared to still have a full shroud. She accepted the hit without a flinch, then bent down and wrapped her arms around Hou Zheng's huge torso. Before Josh could close the distance, shadows writhed again. Then, they were both gone.

His ax swung through empty air and embedded deep into the stone floor. The runes on its head glowed for a moment before fading back into passivity.

Josh took long, deep breaths. He had burned most of his mana and stamina in that fight, and he had nothing to show for it. Well, nothing besides the bloodstone that Hou Zheng had given him before the fight. That was something, at least.

Still breathing hard, sweat dripping from his forehead, he turned to look at the tunnel. It was still blocked off, filled in with dirt and gravel.

He sighed, sat down on the ground, and activated his [Meditation] skill to recover enough mana to get out of here. He tried not to focus on how much he had failed. There was an angry orc out there, and now he had little reason not to attack the town.

He wished Ruth had been here. An extra hand and an extra hammer would have been a huge help.