Stepping into the airlock, Vern steadied his breathing. Risking his life against aliens should start to feel more natural, but it hadn’t yet.

Whatever he was going to face, Vern just hoped it wasn’t more bugs.

What was with this section of the universe, anyway? Way too many insectoids.

Rugsby had to reposition the vessel next to the damaged one so that they could establish a boarding tunnel, and so Vern could hear the creaking of the spaceship vibrating around him.

The airlock didn’t have the luxury of display panels, just a single board of glowing lights accompanied by a few buttons and an intercom. It made for a rather anxiety-filled approach.

A stream of white vapor funneled into the chamber a second later through vents beside the external door. A moment later, the airlock opened diagonally.

“Here goes nothing,” Vern murmured and stepped forward.

A tinge of excitement danced at the back of Vern’s thoughts. Within hours he had gone from being on a spaceship to now boarding another. The whole thing reminded him of movies he grew up watching and could hardly believe he was now acting out something similar himself.

After a short walk, he reached the external door of the other ship, which his boarding tunnel was connected to.

“Gimme a minute,” Rugsby buzzed over an intercom. “Looks like they’re either not in control of their external airlocks anymore, or they don’t want us to come in.”

“Great,” Vern rolled his eyes.

Another moment passed and the door jittered open with a fluffy, white mist cascading through.

Cautiously, Vern stepped onto the foreign vessel. Pipes and tubes hung from walls, expelling white fumes that blanketed the ground in a mist-like sheet. Warning lights flashed red across the ceiling in unison with smaller lights along the walls.

“Yeah, this doesn’t look good,” Vern grumbled as he continued into the ominous scene.

Since he didn’t have a suit, and they didn’t have any other devices to provide him with, he had no comms. Dez could create mental links, but they kept that to a minimum to avoid her running out of mana.

The flashing red light illuminated the gloomy corridors enough for Vern to find his way, and he swung around as stuttering doors suddenly decided their automatic functions worked again.

“I hate this place,” Vern groaned.

The quest was still active though, and the bonus was still available; although, Vern hadn’t seen one before and couldn’t be certain it would disappear, even if the survivors had died already.

Careful, we’re picking up two lifeforms moving towards you. Came Dez’s voice intruding into Vern’s thoughts.

Yeah, things probably weren’t getting any better. Vern shrugged. As long as they don't have any more of those laser pistol things, those things hurt.

Walking further into the mist, what had come up to his shins soon enveloped almost the entirety of the corridor, and Vern found himself barely able to see a couple of feet through the white clouds.

A dark patch appeared through the haze, and it took Vern a second to realize it was moving quickly.

"Crap."

Stepping, then falling backward, Vern managed an inadvertent dodge out of the way and a green, sword-like appendage flew only inches from his face.

“Nice one,” a high-pitched voice chuckled from the fog. “You seem like you might be more fun than those silly fools who set off the distress beacon.”

“Ahah, you tell him, brother. Fresh flesh.” A moist-sounding voice agreed through clapping lips.

Vern spun on his heel, desperate for any sign of his attackers. “What are you and why can I understand you?”

“Oh, it speaks, brother.”

A cackling laugh erupted. “We're practically related. Or at least you are, with what festers in our bowls.”

"Tell him about it."

"My little brother likes to gloat. Not very sportsman-like," the voice chuckled again.

“C'mon, tell him, please brother.” The other laughed.

“C tier classes, Deus Devourers.” The voice snickered once more. “We gain the knowledge possessed by the last thing we ate, and you look delectably knowledgeable.”

“He does, doesn’t he brother.”

Humans. They had eaten humans, Earon realized. There was no other explanation for them speaking English.

Damnit, Vern couldn’t believe the first humans he had managed to run into were likely eaten by whatever these brothers were.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

“Scared yet? You should be. Two C tiers, it’s a scary thought.”

Vern’s eyes thinned as he tried to peer through the white mist, his hands tightening around the blood claymore.

"Well, we can make you scared." The alien voice trailed off.

They were soft on their feet, but Vern heard the slightest of footsteps and spun to his right.

Another slicing arm like something out of an alien movie came rushing for him, but this time he had prepared himself, and raised his blood claymore to meet the threat; they clashed above Vern's head.

His eyes widened, it was a distraction, and another slicing arm flew towards his back. There was no escaping it, and stinging pain greeted him as a wound was opened between his shoulders.

“Damn it,” Vern sneered, dropping to one knee as the two figures disappeared back into the mist.

“He didn’t like that, brother.”

“No, but we did, didn't we brother?"

"We certainly did."

"So, meat, ready to become a meal?”

"Go to hell," Vern sneered.

This battle couldn’t go on for long, Vern knew. He would have to rely on the one thing he knew he did better than others - heal.

Gripping his claymore and stepping back as if he were a cornered animal, he prepared himself.

Again, the first figure revealed itself with a barely perceptible footstep. It was the same trap.

Overconfident fools.

Vern twisted his feet, moving as if he intended to block the blow but as it came down, he ignored it, allowing it to cut across his chest with a mist of blood soaking the air.

This was his chance, the second attacker came in as he had expected, but Vern was already prepared to swing his claymore down in an arching movement as he twisted his body, and several red alien eyes stared up at him in shock horror as he cleaved his blade down and through his unsuspecting foe.

The first wound he had taken was deep and throwing his strength against his own attack had only worsened his blood loss. Luckily for Vern, recovering from the wounds wasn’t difficult, and it required only a single step forward into the puddle of green blood that now spewed freely from the dissected alien for him to feel his strength returning.

Looking down, Vern noted the mantis-like arms the alien had used as swords, its barrel body, and hind legs.

“You killed him, you killed my brother. You bastard! I will surely enjoy devouring you and tearing the flesh from your bones.”

“Your little trick might have worked when there were two of you, but what about now?”

“Damn you!” The alien seethed and flew from the mist swinging both of its blade-like arms at once.

However, Vern already knew he could survive their attacks and he accepted the slashes against his skin, and instead focused on his own attack, swiping down on the alien and embedding his giant sword between its neck and shoulder.

Both attacks would have incapacitated their enemies in any normal circumstances, but the poor alien was already bleeding all over Vern, and within moments both brothers had been sucked dry, leaving only grey husks.

“Eflog Hertexia slain, difficulty level – moderate.”

“Juog Hertexia slain, difficulty level – moderate.”

“Level up – level twenty acquired.”

Vern tilted his head at the notifications. He was a little surprised. They had seemed at least as difficult as anything else he had killed up until now, save maybe the stick insectoid.

Thinking back to the conversation, Vern remembered they had talked about classes. Had they too been like himself and Dez? If so, it made sense. He couldn’t imagine too many people could be at higher levels than himself, not yet anyway. After all, he had found himself on an alien planet, and not only had everything wanted to kill him, but they had all been far stronger than himself. In reality, it had been an ideal place for leveling. And if getting stronger was his only way to survive the situation he found himself in, Vern wondered if leaving it so soon might have been a mistake.

Did I leave the perfect place to grind?

Vern shook his head. The Rangers were after them anyway. If he wanted to grind there, or somewhere else, he would need to escape them, first.

Opening up his status screen, Vern was pleased to see another ability point unlocked.

So, I do get them every ten levels.

Vern used his brute strength and his ability to take a hit to win once again, and he didn’t really see any reason to back down from that strategy. However, it wasn’t just strength that saw him through. His strategy had been simple, but it had still been a strategy, one he thought up, and without it, he probably would have been cut down sooner or later. With that thought, Vern allocated 3 points to intelligence and another 2 to health.

As long as he didn’t die when taking a strike, Vern figured he could outlast most enemies, so health still needed to be worked on.

Intelligence was a little different, and more of a gamble. But if it made him more intelligent, that would surely pay off sooner rather than later, wouldn’t it? Maybe he would come up with an even better strategy in the next fight.

Strength 30

Luck 6

Perception 10

Constitution 23

Dexterity 22

Mana 8

Endurance 16

Health 35 --> 37

Wisdom 8

Tech 16

Intelligence 10 --> 13

Charisma 8

Toughness 20

Willpower 10

Spirituality 4

Speed 30

Vern was surprised to see that all the abilities available to him had changed. And was more than a little excited when reading over all the new options.

Sever, Bleed, and Lacerating Strike all sounded like special but ultimately simple attacks. That would be useful, but Vern wondered if it would be a bit of a waste since he was already more than capable of swinging his sword around as it was.

Necrosis and Arterial Explosion stood out the most, and they just sounded straight-up nasty. Whilst blood bargain sounded pretty damn interesting. But what did it actually mean? And then there was Heartbeat, perhaps the least interesting sounding ability of them all. But for some reason, it spoke to him.

Vern eyed the simple-sounding ability for a moment, his brows dancing from side to side.

Is this a really dumb idea?

Closing his eyes and calming his mind, Vern focused on Heartbeat.

Heartbeat

Lacerating Strike

Bleed

Necrosis

Blood Bargain

Sever

Arterial Explosion

The point was spent, and the ability options disappeared. Vern didn’t feel any different, but he hadn’t expected to.

There was one other thought playing on his mind. Those two alien things had put emphasis on the C tier classes, was this evidence that C actually was a high tier? And if so, how rare was B and beyond?

A smile crept across Vern's face. Perhaps the system had been good to him after all.