Chapter 43 - Begin

13th November 2023, somewhere in the State of Raum.

The woods stood in serene silence, the forest floor blanketed in moss, fallen leaves, and soft earth that emitted a faint, earthy fragrance. Occasionally, the soft chirping of crickets broke the quiet, accompanied by the distant hoot of an owl echoing through the trees.

Above, the night sky stretched out, speckled with countless stars that shimmered like tiny diamonds. The moon hung high, casting a pale, silvery light onto the ground.

In a small clearing, two cabins stood near a crackling campfire, the flames popping and dancing in the night. Shadows from the flickering firelight played across the surrounding trees, creating a cozy and slightly mystical ambiance.

A pot of stew hung over the fire, its savory aroma wafting through the air and mingling with the smoky scent of burning wood, making the forest feel warm and alive despite the night’s chill.

At the moment, Lucas was alone, lounging in a camping chair by the fire. Behind him was a cave carved into the side of a rocky cliff.

Over the last three weeks, Lucas and the girls had been roaming around the Raum state, attacking dungeons here and there. Most of the dungeons were fortunately unoccupied, unlike the one in Mount Mor, but the difficulty of the dungeons was also significantly lower than Mount Mor’s Sector 14. All of them ranged from Easy to Medium, and their Level requirements were below Level 30.

In total, they had conquered ten dungeons, but Lucas himself had only cleared eight. According to Chloe and Samantha, they had been overly reliant on Lucas and his mechanical soldiers to do all the heavy lifting.

Every time a huge wave of mobs swarmed them, Lucas would summon a bunch of cannons and turrets to blast the mobs, decimating them in an instant. If it were Bosses, Manuel would charge straight in, pinning them down, while Jager dished out a high amount of damage. The girls were often reduced to finishing off the last enemy.

In other words, the girls were getting a bunch of assist-kills without any kills for themselves.

Therefore, the girls complained about not having enough ‘girl time’ to themselves and suggested clearing the dungeons on their own. At the moment, they were raiding the dungeon inside the cave Lucas was camping in front of.

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Lucas Kun

Level 54

Class: Mechanic

Title:

Forerunner, Talented Crafter, Seeker

VIT - 53

POW - 8

AGI - 14

INT - 190

WIL - 45

Free Points: 0

Talent: Avid Reader.

Class-Exclusive Skill:

Oversurge Protocol - Lv 7

Magnetic Vision - Lv 4

Energy Strike - Lv 6

Deep Hacking - Lv 1

Machinery Affinity II - Lv MAX

Circuit Expansion - Lv MAX

Skill:

Knowledge - Lv 21

Combat Fundamentals - Lv 10

Matrix Simulation - Lv 16

Analysis - Lv 15

Eternal Suffering - Lv MAX

Steel Flesh - Lv MAX

Artisan Touch - Lv MAX

Gearmaster - Lv MAX

Metalmorphosis - Lv MAX

Perfect Psionical Sense - Lv MAX

Crystalline Skin - Lv MAX

Aerial Balance - Lv MAX

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Aerial Balance

Rank: Uncommon

Passive

Mastery of airborne movement, allowing the user to maintain control and agility while mid-air, even performing acrobatics.

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“Only nine levels after three weeks of grinding,” Lucas clicked his tongue at his status window.

As it turned out, the difficulty of gaining Levels had exponentially increased ever since his Second Advancement. Moreover, getting Skills as a reward was not as common as Lucas had imagined. Out of the eight dungeons Lucas had cleared, he had only received one Skill, , from a bat-themed dungeon.

Although he achieved first place most of the time, the rewards he received were either pieces of equipment or rare materials. The materials were useful, but most of the equipment he obtained was rather underwhelming. They weren’t bad per se, but for a Mechanic like him, who could create his own equipment, the System’s gifted equipment paled in comparison.

Clenching his fists, Lucas knew that his physical body had strengthened tremendously despite his POW still being stagnant at eight. His strength was definitely above eight due to his other stats.

According to his own study, he discovered that all five stats were correlated.

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Take running as an example. VIT would allow him to run longer, POW would make him accelerate faster, AGI would let him run at a higher top speed, INT would give him more precise control over his muscles, and WIL would help him endure a bit longer even when his stamina was completely depleted.

Moreover, all of the Passives he had also influenced his body and mind despite not explicitly stating it. , , , and affected all of his physical stats, while the remaining ones influenced his mental stats.

Therefore, even if his POW was still eight, he was by no means physically weak. He reckoned he could probably punch a hole into a giant boulder.

“Tomorrow’s the day, huh?” Lucas sighed, glancing at the starry sky while sipping the bowl of stew in his hands.

Taking another sip, he muttered to himself, “I wonder what kind of unhinged chaos it’ll be. Racial war? Or maybe even faction. Hmm… Maybe even constellations or gods?”

All of a sudden, Lucas’s thoughts were interrupted as a sword was placed against his neck, accompanied by a deep, raspy voice, “Give me all your money, or else.”

Glancing at the glinting blade, Lucas chuckled and carefully placed his meal down. Raising his arms, he stammered, “P-p-please, I don’t have any money on me! You can have my stew instead.”

“Does it taste good?” the voice snorted.

“Y-yeah. It’s got c-c-chicken meat in it,” Lucas stuttered, gulping hard.

Then, another voice interrupted. “Stop messing around. I’m starving already.”

“Come on, you’re such a party pooper,” the first voice complained in a playful tone.

Shaking his head with a smile, Lucas relaxed back into his camping chair and served up two bowls of chicken stew. Two armored individuals, fully clad from head to toe, sat on the camping chairs, holding the levitating bowls in front of them. Streaks of blue glowed faintly across their armor.

Starting from the helm, the armor began retracting, folding in on itself. The layers of steel shifted seamlessly, shrinking and compressing until the once high-tech suits of armor transformed into windbreakers adorned with intricate, origami-like patterns and faint blue lines etched into their surfaces.

Chloe stretched her arms and groaned, “Ah, much better!”

“No matter how many times I see this, it’s still unbelievable…” Samantha mumbled, running her hand over the edge of her windbreaker.

Chloe picked up her bowl of stew and exclaimed, “Lucas, I’ve reached Level 48!”

“What about you, Samantha?” Lucas glanced at her as she ate her stew.

“Forty-seven,” Samantha replied curtly before downing her bowl.

Lucas watched as the girls wolfed down the stew like a pair of starving wolves. In mere minutes, the huge pot of stew was completely emptied.

“Lucas, I want some more! More!” Chloe groaned, lunging onto Lucas’s body.

Staring at Chloe snuggling against Lucas, Samantha rolled her eyes. She approached them and pinched Chloe’s ear. “We are going to take a shower. Now, let’s go!”

Watching the girls bickering as they made their way into the cabin, Lucas simply smiled.

After three weeks of dungeon raiding, Chloe and Samantha’s auras had noticeably changed. Although their personalities were still the same, the aura they exuded was now sharp, ferocious, and confident. From their initial fidgetiness and fear of tiny goblins, the current versions of them could probably massacre a whole horde of Goblin Kings.

Lucas stared up into the starry night once more and muttered, “I wonder how long this can last…”

***

Finishing drying her hair, Chloe exited the cabin only to see Lucas napping on the camping chair.

“Lucas?” she whispered as she approached the sleeping man.

She knelt next to him, staring at his serene face. It had been a long time since she’d looked this closely at the man she called her lover. Lucas’s face used to be uneven, with slight dents from acne and blackheads. But now, his skin was clean and smooth, making him more dashing than ever.

Poking his cheek, Chloe giggled before leaning in to plant a soft kiss on it.

Lucas’s eyelids twitched, and he woke to see Chloe staring at him. Subconsciously, he muttered, “I fell asleep…?”

“You must’ve been tired,” Chloe said with a gentle smile, brushing her fingers through his hair. “How long has it been since you had proper sleep?”

“Hmm, just a few minutes ago, until I got woken up like a sleeping beauty,” Lucas joked, letting her hand continue running through his hair.

Looking at him, Chloe suggested, “Why don’t you sleep a bit more? There’s still some time until midnight. I’ll keep watch for you instead.”

Lucas gazed into her eyes before nodding with a small smile. “Sure, thanks,” he murmured, closing his eyes once more and falling back into slumber almost immediately.

Even in this situation, the man before her could still smile. If it had been someone else, they would’ve broken down long ago, just like she nearly did. Without Lucas by their side, she and Samantha would’ve spiraled into insanity or died in some ditch.

That’s why, when she saw him smiling and joking despite the chaos, she couldn’t help but feel a jab in her heart. When the System descended, it was Lucas who comforted her, telling her not to worry. It was him who charged head-on against the goblins. It was also him who silently and secretly kept watch over them every night, even though they had a rotation for keeping lookout.

When she saw Lucas faint from exhaustion during the