A bundle of teeth raked at her an inch from her throat, only held back by the rapidly diminishing strength of her left arm. She raised her knees and jammed them between her body and the monkeylike creature on top of her. It was about half her size but made up for its smaller stature in pure, unadulterated rage; its claws dug into her forearm as it tried to scrabble for a better hold on her. Thin ribbons of flesh came off with every slash.

She kicked up with all her strength and sent the beast flying through the air; it twisted and turned like a cat to land on its feet. It charged straight back at her, but she answered it with another kick to the head, now standing herself. The kick stunned it for a moment, and that was all she needed as she drove her knee into its furry chest, pinning it to the ground while she brought a rock down on its head. Its body spasmed as she did so, its skin shimmering like a hologram after every strike. Several swings later, a pulse went out from its now crumpled skull, draining the colour from the creature as it did so. Two dull grey shards coalesced on its chest, and she snatched them up and put them in a travelling bag on her hip.

"You could have asked for help," Her guide said.

Grim huffed as she tried to catch her breath, "...Didn't need it."

Her guide rolled her eyes; she could tell he was more concerned with going home than her well-being. It was an ugly look on what would otherwise be a handsome face if you didn’t mind the scars. She didn’t know what kind of powers he had, but clearly, he could take a hit. Perhaps he’d taken too many to the head and forgotten he could dodge? He didn’t look too smart, so she might have to remind him.

He wore combat armour and had a spear, which faintly glowed in the sunlight, signifying it was from a gateworld. He was at least a C class, so anything here in this world would barely threaten him, but he wasn't allowed to take any shards for himself, so if he was anything like most Boonwitches, he hated today with a passion. It was already past five, and she was the last one who needed to get a boon today.

No reward and no thanks? Sounded like most of her life.

She couldn't bring herself to empathize with him; what was one day of his life in exchange for having as much power as he did? Sure, everyone else had already rolled for their boons and left. The sun was setting, and they were both hungry, but she hadn’t cheated. The guides weren’t supposed to help, although it wasn’t like anyone cared either way. She just couldn’t let someone like that take pity on her, not if she wanted to be a Boonwitch someday. She’d have to be strong enough to do it herself.

She picked up the hunting knife the monkeylike thing had knocked out of her hand and returned it to its sheath after wiping the dust and blood off on her pant leg. The sun was hot above her, the two suns of this world casting a ridiculous amount of heat. She took a swig of her canteen and looked around for the last creature she needed to kill for its shards.

The trees were sparse in the area, but the ones that grew were huge; she could see smaller trees in the trunks that had been absorbed once the bigger ones got close enough. Small fruit grew from the branches and were some of the only sources of colour in an otherwise barren field. She was sure she’d heard some movement ahead of her, so she set off that way.

Until she heard a voice from behind her, "The next ones behind us."

Guess not.

She sulked as she turned around and headed off in the opposite direction.

"Also, you should bandage up that arm before you bleed out," The guide said.

She turned to snap at him but stopped herself once she looked down; huh, she was, in fact, bleeding. Grim cursed internally; stupid nerve damage. Once the adrenaline had worn off, she would have noticed and gotten around to it on her own. Still, there was no point in being stubborn, so Grim grabbed a piece of gauze from her first aid kit and tried to wrap it around her injury, but with one arm, it just wasn't working; her wrist couldn't bend that far.

"I can wrap that up for you."

She turned and glared at him, "I can do it."

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The Boonwitch tried to placate her by spreading his arms, "Listen, my name is Arcadia. I’ve done this a lot; it’ll take a second."

“I can tell,” Grim made a point to stare at his scars. “Fuck off.”

Arcadia threw up his arms and walked off a few feet, giving her some distance. The bandage took a lot longer than it otherwise would've, but through a combination of using her one good hand, her knee and teeth, she was able to wrap it around her bleeding forearm. It wasn't pretty and was barely adequate, but it would work for now. Of course, once she’d started, her body remembered it could feel and sent an annoying amount of pain her way. She popped a painkiller into her mouth to deal with it and went back to tracking her next target.

Finding the last creature she needed to slay took a couple of minutes. She already had a neat little pile of boon shards in her bag, and one more creature would give her enough to roll for a boon. She found it sitting on a log beside a creak, peeling a strange piece of fruit. It was bright orange and covered in spiky protrusions. She’d never seen anything like it before. She smiled as she watched it eat; maybe her luck wasn't so bad after all. With it distracted, she could sneak up on it and finish the last kill she needed quickly.

Crack.

She looked down to see the twig she'd just snapped in half; the monkeylike thing also heard it and threw away the fruit it had been eating. It charged at her in a blind rage. She raised her knife, fully prepared to jab it in the chest, but before it could leap, a rock jutted out of the earth, tripping the creature and making it skid on the floor. She wasted no time as she pounced on it and stabbed it in the chest; with a twist of the knife, the creature died.

That just left the question of how did the creature trip-

-She turned around, furious and pointed a finger at Arcadia, "You used a boon to trip it."

Arcadia raised his hands in mock surrender, "Oh no, you got me; please don't tell anyone."

She picked up the three shards and threw them at him, "I can do this on my own; I don't want them."

"Listen, kid. It was just a nudge; I’m not out to get you, so I don't know what this chip on your shoulder is about. It's late, and if you don't take those shards and get your boon, we're leaving, and you'll have to wait for next year," Arcadia stared down at her.

She took a step back, outraged. “You can’t do that. Everyone gets to stay until they get a boon."

"Yeah, until they get a boon, not until they've killed the whole native species single-handedly," Arcadia paused as he looked at her missing arm. "No pun intended."

Grim scowled and, not seeing any other choice, picked up the shards from his feet. Everything had been under control; it would’ve leaped at her and practically fallen on her knife in its rage. She could’ve done it; she didn’t need some asshole looking at the crippled kid in pity, “helping” when she didn’t need it. Still, there was nothing to be done at the moment; she’d make a name for herself later.

She felt a hum and looked down. Her bag had a faint glow from inside, characteristic of the energy the shards gave off once they were ready to fuse. Despite herself, she couldn’t help but feel excited; what she got would have a heavy hand on her future. Not willing to wait any longer, she opened her bag and held them all in her hand. A moment later, a system prompt appeared in her vision.

Fuse x20 E rank boonshards?

She accepted and watched as the shards came together in a small energy cloud and transformed into a rough square that sat on her palm. It was gray, and lines ran equidistant from its center. She knew from the briefing that she could either roll it or absorb it, which would improve her physical abilities generally by a small amount. It was equal to about an extra year of life, along with increasing strength, durability and endurance by a tiny amount. It was not enough to make a significant impact; she’d have to advance in rank to see a noticeable improvement. For Grim, it would take four E-rank Boons to advance to D tier, but she didn't think she'd go that route. It was generally more useful to roll for a boon, especially since, for the average person, it was much too expensive and dangerous to go raiding Gateworlds. A boon could decide what kind of job you got if you got something useful. As for what she wanted? She'd be okay with one of the cooking or labour-related ones, where she didn't have to deal with other people. If she could choose, though? She’d pick something she could use in a fight.

She threw the dice and watched as it exploded into a hologram. E rank was displayed above a rapidly changing display of skill names.

Rolling E rank Boon.

...

LIMIT BREAK.

Rolling D rank Boon.

...

"Wait, what's happening?" Grim asked. The hologram had only started rolling for a couple of seconds, and with each limit break came an outpouring of sound and an increasingly higher-pitched rolling noise. The sound was intoxicating.

Arcadia ran closer to her but couldn’t see what was happening; the boon process was only visible to those going through it, "What's wrong?"

LIMIT BREAK!

ROLLING B rank Boon.

...

LIMIT BREAK!!!

ROLLING A rank Boon.

...

"I don't know," Grim cried out.

!!!!!LIMIT BREAK!!!!!

ROLLING S RANK BOON.

...

Grim almost fainted when she saw what she got, and then she did faint when she felt it affix to her soul.