“I can’t believe it’s seriously alone. It makes no sense,” Jamie exclaimed after they had taken two turns around the hill. One together, the second in opposite directions to make sure they weren’t tricked.

Max just nodded silently, going over his plan for the tenth time. It was easy really. He would use Sprint to charge the wolf and use the Swift Striders ability to change it into a haste type spell – whatever that meant – and fight the wolf to the best of his abilities. Should he need a break or respite Jamie would try to keep the monster off with the log she was carrying.

“This is our most dangerous encounter as of yet. Are you sure you want to take the risk?”

“Jup, we need to take risks and this one is as controlled as it can be. You can help me in case I get in trouble, and we were never this well-equipped. I know so much more about fighting than I did yesterday, that I can’t even articulate it properly. Skills are weird.”

He knew that Jamie shared that sentiment, she was worried regardless. He was too, but just trying not to show it. In all honesty, and despite how much he’d been teasing Jamie, he was worried for both their survival. Even if he and Jamie regenerated faster here, a single blow could still be the end for both of them.

“Wish me luck,” he said to Jamie. Not listening for a response, he charged.

The wolf noticed him quickly. From roughly three hundred meters away. He felt like it should have fletched teeth or anything of the sort, instead it just looked at him, waiting and waiting. Looking at a charging Max with a slightly tilted head.

A hundred meters away Max grew hesitant, the wolf still hadn’t moved. He was beginning to slow down, expecting some sort of trap.

Is it tricking me, trying to bait me, trying to get me to lose my stride?

Thankfully it too charged just a moment later.

Max’s thoughts tumbled, but before he could come to any one conclusion the distance between him, and the wolf had halved again. He triggered Swift Striders’ ability and suddenly his sprint stopped, but he didn’t lose balance as he had previously, his movements weren’t suddenly halted. Instead, his movements felt smoother than before, and his body reacted like a leaf to the wind. Each step had no power behind it, yet it was incredibly fast.

But something wasn’t quite right. His thoughts had gone blank, the singular objective of defeating the monster ahead of him was all that could take over his thoughts at this moment. And he found that he didn’t care. And like that his thoughts were snuffed out.

And like a leaf carried on the wind he dashed at the wolf and promptly evaded the snapping jaw that came straight for his jugular. The leap was more than anything normally possible, and he hadn’t been bothered by it at all.

Perplexed, he stood to the side for just a moment, trying to understand what had just happened but his brain didn’t catch up, it was as though some part of him was turned off. He could only move and react not think. The next moment he jabbed Dung Sweeper into the monster’s side and was already dancing around the creature as it still reacted to the first swing.

With the next thrust Max pierced one of the hindlegs of the already slightly slowed wolf. The creature howled and clawed at nothing, Max already evading again. Another step another pierce. Five seconds later, just as the ability was beginning to fade, he twirled away.

Five meters between the two combatants showed a drastic change. Max, who’d been previously slightly fearful had a slight grin on his face as he looked upon the profusely bleeding wolf, staggering on its paws, barely keeping upright.

They stood like that, staring at each other until the wolf crashed down on the floor. As the ability faded in its entirety Max thoughts returned with the crushing of a tidal wave, overwhelming his consciousness for a brief moment. He kept standing there looking at the corpse until footsteps approached.

“What that fuck was that, Max?” asked Jamie.

“I have no idea,” he kept starring, trying to understand the wild ravaging void that had encompassed him before. “No clue at all.”

Jamie but a hand on his shoulder, after seeing no movement from the wolf for a bit. Tension draining and worry replacing it.

“If you want to talk to me, feel free.”

Max wanted to. But didn’t know how to explain that he felt as though he had not existed for a brief period. So he spoke about the closest thing to it.

“I didn’t want to leave it to suffer, you gotta trust me. I just didn’t… I was… am scared. When I was hasted everything felt so easy, so light, so distant. It was as though my brain was turned off and someone else was inside it. And then I stood there. Not really remembering how I got there, but the thoughts distinctly there.”

“That’s not what I meant, but are you alright?”

“Oh, what did you mean?”

“You were fast. Like really fast. I want your boots. But do you wanna talk about it? We have the time.”

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“I’ll think about it, but not right now. Thanks Jamie. It was just weird.”

As Jamie began feeling about the wolf, Max consulted his new notification.

> Swift Strider (Uncommon) – Level 0 has increased in level. Swift Strider has reached its maximum level.

>

> -> Swift Strider (Uncommon) – Level 1 – Upgraded boots of the Standard Human Workman Attire.

> Ability: Zoomies

> Attributes: Agility + 2

> Cooldown: 11 hours

> Equipment Mastery Bonus: As they were once part of a set, the other parts of the set can only be enhanced with similar cores. Equipment Mastery Bonus suspended until set completion (1/3).

That at least was an upside to this entire situation. He was not so sure if he would ever use the ability again. Max sat down to look at the rest of his status.

He’d killed another mini-boss. This time on his own, but it would hopefully count for Jamie too if it mattered for anything. And the cost for that was eleven hours of cool down on an item’s ability and oddly enough on his Sprint ability as well. Before it had always been available – even after strenuous use – but taken some time to fully grow in charge. The skill felt equally untoggleable in his unmoving state, but it felt obvious that he would not be able to use it until the cooldown was over.

Still, the haste ability was a powerful one if he could handle the backlash; one he would from now on save for dangerous situations.

Minutes later Max shook himself out of his stupor. He’d just stared into nothingness, his thoughts drifting, lost. Not quite recovered from the experience. Realizing he was in such a state had needed Jamie’s hand moving from his shoulder in the first place.

He could further lament his potentially temporary death when the sun was down. He had do at least put up a front of being helpful.

He got back up, not having noticed that he’d sat down. Shaking his head, he approached Jamie who was trying to retrieve the monster shard.

“So should we save the shard or try to use it on my pants or shirt?” he asked.

“Don’t you need to find similar ones to upgrade the rest of your equipment? We should probably save them to find ones that are fairly similar. But we can do whatever you are comfortable with, especially since I’m not expecting us to come across any major issues any time soon.”

###

It took Max roughly an hour to calm down from the weird state of mind he’d been under. What had finally done it for him was Jamie explaining that she’d gained a new ability the previous night.

“Why haven’t you told me earlier? And can you show me? Fire magic sounds so cool!”

“Hold up Max,” she responded with exasperation. “It’s not fire magic. It’s just lighting a fire, nothing more nothing less. Because… At first, I didn’t want to wake you, then you told me about your cool ability to infuse items, and I didn’t want to one up you or anything.

“Sooo, you think your ability is better than mine, huh?” he grinned.

“That’s not what I said, jerk. I just sorta forgot after. I guess I can show you, but it knocked me out cold last night after only two usages. We might as well make it count for something if we do use it.”

“Sounds good to me,” he responded. “But let’s head back a bit and look for a lower leveled enemies.”

As they came across the elephants Jamie spoke up again.

“I really wanna try it on those. I dunno why, but it feels like a stupid idea.”

“Yeah, definitely stupid, let’s not do that.”

They tracked back for a good distance, checking out the various monster encampments across their path again.

They cleared the brittle pangolins fairly quickly. To their dismay, not a single one of the creatures seemed to possess a monster core.

Against their better judgement they later attacked the bears. Jamie dashed in followed by Max hauling his Pitchfork at the other parent bear. Jamie’s opponent, as discussed, went up in flames as she reached its proximity. She wasn’t going to fight for real given her lack of weapons and injury, but she could do a bit.

The burning bear began howling in agony and wildly thrashing around it – having lost all interest in fighting the humans.

On Max’s side things were a bit different. The impaled bear wasn’t drastically injured, but it was pawing helplessly at the five prongs lodged in its flank.

Jamie turned her attention to the kid bear, which they thought would rile up the two grown bears. To their surprise neither of the parents got more agitated. Both were too occupied with their own situations. Max was still busy approaching the non-burning parent bear, a few meters out with no reaction from the bear.

He took the last few steps extra carefully, keeping his eyes on the bear’s paws just in case. He stopped and pulled at Dung Sweeper. With a lurch it dislodged, leaving the bear to helplessly keep pawing at its injury.

Is it stupid or do the debuffs look like that?

Regardless of what the issue was, Max hit the monster again. Going right for its throat. It pitched over two stabs later.

That was a lot easier than expected. Max threw a glance at Jamie, seeing if she needed help.

To his surprise she didn’t precisely. She wasn’t gaining any grounds in fighting the kid bear, but that was expected. Her goal had been to occupy the level zero bear. Max strode forward and approached the on the ground rolling bear. He timed his thrust correctly and stuck the pitchfork into the monster’s face.

The pitchfork skittered off against the hard bone of its skull, but he wasn’t perturbed. He casually steadied the pitchfork and readied for another strike. One eye had been hit, and that was enough.

The next thrust pierced the now even more agitated and violently thrashing bear’s throat. Then Max had to pull away, not able to evade the random swipes and kicks any longer. He’d see how the bear was faring a minute again. It was time to help Jamie out and get rid of her opponent.

The small bear died to three jabs quickly.

And after that the fight was basically over. The remaining bear was heavily injured, its fur burned off and lacerated, several wounds cover its body, one eye blinded and potentially affected by one of Dung Sweeper’s debuffs. The exception were claws, still in pristine condition, clad in stone with claws that glinted slightly in the light.

Jamie had chosen the right bear to ignite it seemed.

They ended its suffering silently.

“You know, I don’t really like this.” Jamie stated as they stood in silence over the carnage they had caused.

“Me neither, but what are we to do? If the next floor is more dangerous than this one, we’ll die. We need every advantage.”

“I was not saying we should change anything. Merely stating a fact, so that I remember, that I don’t want to change, want to take the easy route if another exists. That I don’t come to accept murder as a normal part of my life.”

“I don’t like killing monsters as well,” he sighed.

Then they turned their attention to the slain monsters. To their surprise both monsters awarded them two monster cores. Those they had decided they would be safe for when they were going to upgrade Jamie’s work attire.

That was not all, after the last beast had been defeated the CRAWL had notified them both about their progress.

> Hidden Floor-Quest completed.

>

> Eradication – Clear 5 monster nests permanently.

>

> Progress – 5/5 monster nests destroyed.

>

> Reward – You have gained a singular attribute point.