The truck rumbled back toward home, chugging along the country roads. Its interior was packed with soldiers, an arm wrestler, an alien elf, and a parrot -- all but the last sopping wet.

They spent the first part of the trip in silence. The sound of the vehicle made it difficult to talk outside of shouts, but that wasn't the only reason. Everyone had more important matters to attend to -- their levels.

Name: Chadwick Armstrong

Class: Arm Wrestler (Lvl 20)

Race: Human

Stats

STR: 42*

DEX: 15*

CON: 30*

INT: 6

WIS: 12

CHA: 13

Available Points: 10

Traits

Specialized Training (II)

Arm-ed Combat (I)

Late Bloomer (I)

Available Upgrades: 0

Skills

Ultra Instinct*

Curveball

Duelist

Rallying Cry

Iron Skin

Power-Up Punch

Available Selections: 0

Available Upgrades: 2

Proficiencies

Fistfighting (C)

Driving (E)

Grappling (E)

Persuasion (D)

Firearms (E)

Throwing (D)

Weightlifting (E)

Showmanship (E)

Demolition (D)

Available Upgrades: 1

Titles

Champion Arm Wrestler

Chad had received a few new goodies with level twenty. A proficiency upgrade and two new skill upgrades were the biggest ones, thought the stat points were always nice as well.

Speaking of those... He eyed his available stat points with a frown. Did I get an extra this time? I'm pretty sure the notification said I got four instead of three.

Confused, he checked over his status once again. A brief read over his traits revealed what he had missed.

Traits

Late Bloomer (I) - Increased viability and growth later in development.

Rank I - increases stat points gained on level up by 1 every 20 levels.

Huh. Guess I'm finally getting some use out of that trait. That's pretty cool.

It had taken a long time to get here, but all that effort was being rewarded. Still, he managed to restrain himself from assigning the pool right away. They were almost back home, where he could take a bit more time to think the choices over.

Leaving his stat allocations alone for the moment, he turned toward his skills. Last time, his skill upgrade had let him level up Adrenaline Surge into Ultra Instinct -- a skill that had proven its worth plenty of times. But now, he had a different goal in mind.

Skill Upgrade: Please select a skill.

Scrolling down, he found what he needed.

Rallying Cry - When activated, imbues all allies within a 50-foot range with 20% of your strength and constitution. Activation requires you to shout a battle cry of your choice. Duration: 5 minutes. Cooldown: 1 hour.

This fucker.

Ever since his first time using it, Chad had avoided the skill like the plague. It simply hadn't been worth it. As much as he saw the benefits of having one really beefy arm, the sheer pain and confusion it caused had canceled that out. His allies had practically begged him to never use it again. Which meant it was ripe for experimentation.

There's gotta be a way to turn it into something useful. Squawkers mentioned that upgrading it will probably just make it do more of the same -- as in, make it affect more people or make their arms even bigger. So why not try to fuse it with something else?

Selecting the skill, Chad was prompted once more.

Please select a second skill or proficiency.

Stolen story; please report.

This was the fun part. He spent a lot of the trip home going through the options, seeing what the skill might become if he fused it with this or that. Given that the system only gave him the name of the resulting skill, it was hard to tell whether some options would be good or not. But some of them were fairly straightforward.

The following skills will be lost:

Rallying Cry

Curveball

The following skill(s) will be gained:

Howling Missile

...Yeah, I'll pass, Chad thought. That kinda seems like a party trick instead of an actually useful skill.

He similarly discarded "Announcer's Voice" and "Ventriloquist's Shout," results from combining the skill with his Showmanship and Throwing proficiencies.

Eventually, after a lot of trial and error and some feedback from Squawkers, he settled on a few options. The first was to fuse Rallying Cry with Iron Skin. The combination would yield a skill called Hearts of Iron, which sounded more defensive at least. The other choice was to fuse Rallying Cry with Duelist to get something called Walkout Theme.

"Which one do you think, Squawk?" Chad called to the bird on his shoulder. "Any preference?"

"Hm..." The parrot thought. "Hearts of Iron sounds like it could be a good AoE defensive skill. But fusing Iron Skin is too risky. Especially when Rallying Cry didn't affect you yourself. You need some kind of defensive skill."

"Good point..." Chad mulled that over. He actually used the skill a lot, and losing it would be pretty bad. Plus, there was no guarantee that Hearts of Iron would do what they expected.

"Plus," Squawkers continued, "You might not totally get rid of the bad parts of Rallying Cry that way. We might not for Walkout Theme, either, though..."

"Yeah, but I think Walkout Theme might work better," Chad argued. "Those things are meant to pump a guy up! The crowd, too, but still. I think it might be more along the lines of hitting just me."

Squawkers conceded the point. "Well, if it's not, you still have a second skill upgrade. We can just see if we can throw something else at it."

Chad nodded. Duelist was a useful skill, but it wasn't as central to his style as the others. Besides, He was pretty sure that it would be useless against the portal itself. That thing probably didn't count as an enemy.

The following skills will be lost:

Rallying Cry

Duelist

The following skill(s) will be gained:

Walkout Theme*

WARNING: This action cannot be undone. Skills used for Skill Upgrades are lost forever.

Please confirm your selection.

With a brief thought, Chad watched the window blink. In its place appeared a description of his newest skill.

Walkout Theme* -- Nothing gets you pumped up for a fight like a good soundtrack. All you need is an announcer to make it official!

Provides a passive 10% increase to all physical stats when facing an opponent in single combat. During activation, inflicts a taunt on every enemy within a 50-foot range. When activated, increases strength and constitution by 50%. Activation requires you to play a song of your choice for 1 minute. Duration: 5 minutes. Cooldown: 1 hour.

Chad grinned at the description. It was perfect. Just what he'd been looking for.

"That's pretty good!" Squawkers admitted. "Way better than what it was, at least. Although the taunt on everything in the vicinity is kinda worrying."

"Eh, it'll be fine." Chad waved off the concern. "I've dealt with worse. Besides, things are usually focused on hitting me anyway."

"I guess... But I get the feeling you're about to use Iron Skin a lot more."

"I mean, I still have one more upgrade to use." Chad navigated back through his menus. "I can just stick it on Iron Skin? It would get me Steel Skin, apparently."

"Hmmm..." The bird thought. "It's not a bad idea..."

He raised an eyebrow at the bird's hesitation. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing!" Squawkers assured him. "Like I said, it's not a bad idea. But... well, it'll keep you safer, but you're not gonna be throwing stuff at the portal. You'll be punching it."

Chad crossed his arms. "That's a good point. I guess I do have to get there, but hopefully we shouldn't have to worry so much. It's not like I'll be going alone. Right, Major?"

At Chad's shouted question, Major Geoffires glanced back. "Right. Not a chance in hell we're sending you up there alone. This is already a risky mission."

"...You really are serious about destroying it, aren't you?"

Chad blinked, looking over. Nick sat squished between a pair of soldiers near the middle of the vehicle.

"Of course!" Chad grinned. "I mean, why wouldn't I be?"

"Because the very idea is so absurd. It should be impossible. But..." The elf licked his lips. "May I ask what your strength stat is?"

Squawkers narrowed his eyes, but Major Geoffries spoke up first. "Might as well tell him. We're not letting him out of our sight, and he might have some good insights to share about it."

"Er..." Chad scratched his head as he considered how to answer. "That's a difficult question. It's technically 42?"

Nick frowned. "42? That's... fairly high for your level, but not unheard of. Have you been specializing in strength?"

"He has, way more than you think." Squawkers sighed.

"Yeah. I mean, that's my total. But these muscles get pretty specific." He gestured at his disproportionately large hand. "This is at 143 right now."

Nick stared at him blankly. "What?"

"It's at 143," Chad repeated. "It's not that strong though. My forearm is at 253--"

Nick's eyes practically bugged out of his head. "You're lying. That's impossible."

Squawkers muttered under his breath. "You keep saying that word. I don't think it means what you think it means."

"No, no, no." Nick's grip hands clenched on the hem of his robe. "Your strength can't be that high. Certainly not at level twenty. How? What manner of creature are you? Your tag says human, but..."

"Why? Is that good?" Chad asked. He knew the number was big, but Nick's reaction seemed to be a little disproportionate.

"Good?" Nick barked a laugh. "Let me speak plainly. I do not know the exact stats of out strongest warriors. They are not openly discussed, for obvious reasons."

Well, whoops.

"But 253 as a base? For anything?! That's simply absurd!" Nick was getting heating now. "If someone were to go through their entire life, taking their tree stat points per level and only allocating them to strength -- nothing else -- they might reach there by level eighty. Eighty! Do you know how hard it is to reach level eighty?! And that's not even considering the issues you'd encounter from specializing so much!"

"Yeah, I kinda ran into those." Chad admitted with a sheepish grin. "That's why I had to put some points in dexterity and constitution, too. Oh, and I'm getting 4 stat points per level now that I'm level 20."

At that point Nick simply froze. A moment later, he slumped with his head in his hands. "It's impossible. Simply impossible. How... Is that why you humans mature so late...?"

Nick continued muttering to himself, leaving Chad and Squawkers to exchange worried glances. Evidently, Specialized Training was a bit of a bigger deal than they'd expected.

"Soooo..." Chad started again. "Does that mean we've got a better chance? Of taking the portal down, I mean."

The elf straightened, his eyes flicking to Chad's. "I can't believe I'm saying it, but... perhaps. There might be a chance. A slim one, but if your stats are truly as you say..." He took a shuddering breath. "Then they may very well be unheard of. Although stats aren't everything. Higher level skills account for much of a warriors' strength, after all..."

"Well, guess that makes the choice for us." Chad nodded at Squawkers. "We should probably go all in on punching things harder."

"I agree," the bird bobbed his head. "If we can get protection for you, then you should keep focusing. We'll have to make sure to keep you safe, though."

With that settled, Chad selected Power-Up Punch in the skill upgrade menu. After testing it with a few other proficiencies and skills, he found one in particular that made his eyes go wide. It was a fusion with his Demolition proficiency.

I think we've found a winner.

Confirming the fusion, Chad was met with his new and improved skill.

Worldshatter* -- Sometimes, you just want to punch someone. Sometimes it's something. Luckily, this skill isn't too picky either way.

When activated, allows a punch to be charged before striking. Charging increases the next strike's damage and impact by 10% per second (maximum 150%). Multiplied by 2x if the blow is dealt to a nonliving entity. Cooldown: none.

Nick spoke up suddenly again. "Who are you, really? What manner of vocation did you have that led you down this... grotesque path? How can you possibly be so strong as a mere level twenty?"

"Me?" Chad flexed his arm, its oddly sized muscles bulging. "I'm a world champion arm wrestler!"