Day 5, 9:50 PM

As it turns out, a Fred doesn’t cut it. The poor youth is gasping for breath on the ground, not because I’ve beaten him up, which I have a bit, but because he overexerted himself. I frown. No level up notification. It’s been a minute already, so there won’t be one.

I check BSD again and want to curse my own stupidity. Fred’s not my enemy. Great, BSD made such a ridiculous condition and blocked weapon masters from leveling through friendly spars. Doesn’t matter. I’ll go beat up a lobster with a club, a dagger, and a sword tomorrow.

A sudden chill runs down my spine.

I’m doing it again. I’m trying to game my life and game the system, and I can already feel my hold on reality weakening. It’s been a handful of days, and I’m already back to where I was as I descended into madness.

I need something to ground me. I can’t, I just can’t do that again.

“A good fight.” I smile, extending my hand to Fred, but he doesn’t take it. Instead, he settles for gasping for air in mother earth’s squishy embrace.

“Training like this, until your body gives out, is a great way to increase your abilities naturally. Just like Lucy did during her fight.”

I consider using the kids as an anchor, as something that binds me to reality, but I’m doomed if they turn into an obsession or a project.

“You need to learn to let go,” she said. Should I just leave these kids and head deeper by myself? Would that help?

I don’t think it would. But the hell am I supposed to do if that’s not an option either? What is it that I need to let go of? Manny was always smarter than me, seeing things I couldn’t and pointing me in the right direction, and I’ve lost her. Possibly forever.

I gulp and drive away those thoughts. The first thing I need to let go of is her. Luckily, the light is dim and the flickering campfire is behind my back, so the kids can’t see my expression.

“I think Fred’s got the right idea, we should rest and head to the second floor tomorrow. I’ll take the first watch, who wants to take the second?”

Lucy and Fred volunteered, and given Fred’s condition, we all agreed Lucy will take the second watch.

The kids huddle on the ground near the fire and start snoring within a minute. The scene draws a smile. They are young, tired, and they experienced a bunch of surprises in one day, it’s only natural they pass out as soon as they hit the sack or squishy mulch.

Alone with my thoughts, I check the tree for acidic vines, poisons, and every other method of threatening my life that I can imagine, but it’s clean. A regular old growsaw, timber used in construction. I sit down and lean my back against it, my lids shutting all on their own. The night passes in a semi-restful limbo on the border of sleep. I certainly dozed off a couple times, but it was such light sleep, my own soft snores woke me up.

My eyes snap open as I hear the kids stirring. I get up, feed a handful of branches on dying embers, and wait for them to wake up. Their confused faces are priceless as they take a moment to process where they are and what they are doing in the forest.

“You didn’t wake me!” Lucy’s hair is stuck to her face, and there’s a line of drool running down her chin as she accuses me.

I gesture towards the fire burning and popping happily, then towards them. “There was no need, and you guys were exhausted. Especially Fred.

“I accept full responsibility for that.” I say before the young man can protest.

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The morale is high, we are mostly rested, and after devouring some lobster leftovers we head down the stairs. The long hours in the darkness brought some clarity to my mind, and I have decided to advance as fast as possible, within reason.

Rushing off in the middle of the night, leaving the kids to sleep without a guard just to level up, is not acceptable. Neither is anything similarly irresponsible or crazy. However, fighting a lobster and drawing out the fight so I can use three different weapons is definitely fine. It might make a strange sight, but that’s all right with me.

I reach the second floor with the others just a few steps behind me. The layout seems similar to the one above. There’s a bit of a clearing at the entrance, then the forest starts, concealing the danger.

Each level is supposedly more dangerous than the last. Edna said there are more monsters, some evolved, some new, but always a greater challenge than the ones above them.

“Fred gets the first monster of the day.” Everyone agrees with me, and we start searching the forest for valuables and monsters.

Much to Fred’s disappointment, the lobster we run into first is pretty much the same as the ones above. Maybe a bit bigger. Fred dodges the initial attack and brains it in two moves.

“Great!” I pat him on the back. “You might think it’s boring, but think about how easily you killed it now, compared to the first one you fought yesterday. You’re making excellent progress.”

My compliment embarrasses the youth, and he mumbles a thanks, letting me take the point. With a sword in my right, a club in my left, a dagger strapped behind my sling-belt, and the rest of my weapons strapped to my back, I must look ridiculous.

I don’t think about it much. If the level up condition is anything to go by, my class requires me to carry a ton of different weapons, or to have retainers who carry them.

A bush rustles, and a giant tarantula scuttles out of it. It darts towards me, much faster than the lobster, but a single swipe of my sword severs three out of six legs on its left.

“Back,” I warn the rest, trimming another two legs from its right side before discarding the sword.

With five out of twelve legs severed, its mobility is limited, its speed nowhere near what I’ve seen in the forest while it fought the lobster. I use the chance to crush another three legs on its right side with my club, and the creature stumbles, crawling on the ground away from me.

A wooden magical dagger plunges in the middle of its cluster of eyes, and I get my level up notification.

[You have leveled up.

Select a skill within sixty seconds or a random one will be assigned to you.

Blunt Weapons Master - Your skill with all blunt weapons you are proficient with increases by one grade.

Slashing Weapons Master - Your skill with all slashing weapons you are proficient with increases by one grade.]

Wow! Just wow. Pushing multiple weapon skills at once is like getting a bunch of skills. No wonder the condition is so harsh.

The only question is what do I go with? Staff, club, and sling versus sword and dagger. Most people would choose the latter, as they prefer bladed weapons, and I do consider the option, but ultimately, staff is my preferred weapon, useful for offense and defense, and it can double as a really long club.

“Why were you showing off?” Lucy asks, interrupting my thoughts. “You obviously could’ve just stabbed it with the sword right from the start.”

I give her an apologetic smile as I pick Blunt Weapons Master. “I was just testing something, and it didn’t work as well as I hoped.”

I check BSD, increasing my strength to nineteen. My staffmanship is at an expert level, I’ve never had such a high grade skill, except Rider, which I got from an achievement.

The level up condition is brutal though, proficiency with eight different weapon categories. I don’t even think about it, and focus on my party.

“Lucy, you can take point, but be careful, these things are fast, and those nasty fangs certainly aren’t for show. It will hurt if it bites you, and you’ll probably get poisoned.”

Lucy takes the lead, giving me an annoyed look, as if my warning was an insult. And it might have been. The spider lunges at her from a bush not ten minutes later, and she swats it dead with her club like it’s the most normal thing in the world.

She raises a brow at me, wordlessly saying, “See, this is how you kill spiders. You don’t juggle weapons.”

I can’t help feeling embarrassed. It must’ve looked like I was showing off in front of the kids, when in truth, I was doing what BSD told me to.

Fred gets another lobster, annoyed because we got the spiders, and we take turns, clearing the level without incident.

Our loot are three manaria bushes, and a fistful of glowing ore, which Initial Appraisal labels as stormium.