Joe had entered the rift early in the day. It had been a long run, but four hours left their exit around noon. Both men blinked at the brighter light and tensed themselves for sudden movement. There was no bellowing roar or shouting from angry guards. Joe looked suspiciously over the quiet area, but Nik was already moving away and motioning for him to follow.

They ran back through Joe's temporary neighborhood of condos, and when they reached one of the main streets, Nik turned and led them towards the walls surrounding the downtown. Joe was curious but didn't say anything. They didn't know how accurate the monster's senses were, and it didn't make sense to take unnecessary risks.

A half block from the walls, Joe was about to question what they were doing when Nik doubled back the way they came. At the first street heading east, he headed straight for the creek. Joe passed the house where he'd found his long-lost aluminum best friend. It was a bittersweet memory, but he was with glaive now. There was no going back.

They came to the park by the creek and waded through it, coming up on the other side. They ran about a hundred more yards before doubling back again. This time Nik walked down the center of the stream, and Joe followed. He'd seen enough movies and TV to guess Nik was trying to confuse anything that might be following scent trails. A minute later, he couldn't contain his curiosity anymore.

"Any reason why we needed to have soggy shoes this time around?"

"Yes," Nik grunted before clearing his throat and continuing. "This time, you're bleeding, and we're both sweaty. Depending on its senses, that's a lot easier to track. We'll be more careful going back next time as well. I didn't like the look of that carwash."

"Was it different?" Joe was honestly curious. His eyes hadn't completely adjusted to the light by the time Nik had him running away.

"Something drug some trees over in front of it. They were this big around."

Nik held up his hands, and they were almost two feet apart. If that were true, and Joe believed him, then the other hound was stronger than his worst fears. Moving a tree that size would take an insane level of strength. Not to mention being able to topple trees that big in the first place. Suddenly Niks precautions made a lot more sense. Hell, Joe was wondering if they'd been cautious enough. He guessed they'd find out tonight.

Joe suddenly worried about going back at all. There were children, and he'd sleep under a bush before he willingly led a monster back to the kids. A scowl drew down his brows, and Nik must have read his expression again.

"If we don't go back, there's a chance they do something stupid like go look for us. We don't know when it's active, but there's an above-average chance it's comfortable in the dark. I don't like those odds."

First, Joe had to work on his poker face. If his emotions were that open, it would cause problems down the line. Secondly, they needed to have some real talk about plans and safe houses. Their plans had worked for human issues so far. It was woefully unprepared for monster incursions. The rift now provided meal replacement nuts if you made it to the squirrels. Well, you had to make it out of that alive, so it was a bit harder than that. Still, it was more efficient than using berries as meal replacements.

They went past the area directly east of the neighborhood before getting out of the stream and then came up from the south. The house came into view, and they scared the crap out of the kids hanging out in the backyard. That wasn't surprising, as no one expected people to come from the south. From a distance, both men had the dangerous drifter look down. Diana was in the garden with Carl and walked out to greet them.

"Why are you coming back from that direction? Did something happen?"

"Nothing yet," Joe said. "The other hound is nesting in the carwash. Nik took us the scenic route home."

Diana looked over at Nik and nodded. "That's good thinking. We'll need to be more careful."

The three walked back to the house, and Joe caught some crap about his torn clothing. If he didn't get some armor soon, he'd be fighting monsters in reinforced underoos like some Dollar Tree Conan the Barbarian. Both men had a shower and then an early dinner with the group.

Joe found the group dinners filled a spot in his heart he'd been missing ever since his family left. It didn't replace them, but the sense of family and community was still there for him. Unfortunately, the meals were getting tight. Everyone oohed and aahed over the walnuts from the new monsters, and they were shared to help keep nutrition high even if bellies weren't full. The garden was coming along shockingly quickly, but it was still at least a month until the first food would come out of it.

Mike was enthusiastic about the other loot in general, but when Joe showed him the mushroom spines, the man looked like he was in love.

"These are great," Mike said. "They're sharp, sturdy, and already have a poison delivery system. If the new hound isn't immune, these needles could tip the fight in our favor. "

The images of a ravaged carwash floated through Joe's mind, and he suppressed a shiver. The spines could be a great help, but Joe wouldn't bet their lives on a trick, at least not a second time. There was one easy answer to their problems, brute force. Their numbers would tip the balance if they got strong enough to match the hound. Still, if they could reliably poison their targets, that wouldn't hurt.

Dinner was cleaned up, though no scraps were left over at the end as usual. The last few years before the System had forced most people to be less wasteful, and the almost complete lack of resources now had taken that to a whole new level. The sky was dark with proper dusk when the children were ushered upstairs, and the adults sat around the table. It would be full watch shifts tonight with three people on each and weapons at hand.

"What's the plan for tomorrow?" Deena sounded worried, and Joe understood. They all were.

"I don't have one," Joe said simply. "I'm going to push the rift hard and try to level again. Failing that, I'm going to max out my bonus attributes and skills. Then we're going to do the same for all of you."

"I think it should only be one group at the rift at a time." Deena sounded hesitant as if she was worried about contradicting Joe. "I just want the kids to be safe."

Everyone was worried about the new developments, and Joe didn't blame Deena. Until this new threat was neutralized, no one would be sleeping soundly.

"That's a good call," Joe agreed. "We only have four true fighters right now. If we want some protection here, then we'll stick with groups of two for now. Who's up next?"

"I'm out," Nik said. "I can't go every day like you can. I'll need at least a day of rest in between, if not two."

Joe understood. He didn't know if it was vigor being his highest attribute or his regeneration skill, but muscle tiredness wasn't a problem after a night's sleep. It was probably a combination of the two, and Joe knew he needed to leverage that advantage.

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"I'd like to work with Carl again tomorrow," Diana said. "I'm getting close to figuring out the projection. After that, I can try it in a rift and hopefully get a skill to unlock. I've noticed that the System only seems to take notice of what we do in there."

Everyone nodded at that last statement. Oddly, they had all their attributes and skills in the real world, but only the rift seemed to matter for growth. There had to be a reason, but Joe couldn't figure out what it was. More importantly, it would be invaluable if Diana could get a magical attack skill. Nik was their only ranged fighter, and he was dependent on a severely reduced supply of arrows. Diana being able to attack from the rear and still support with melee could double her effectiveness. Joe looked over at Deena before he spoke to her.

"You up to push for level four?"

"Yeah. I hate leaving the kids, but someone has to try and keep you from being poisoned in every single fight."

Nik looked innocent, but Joe wasn't buying it. Someone had clearly been telling tales about their latest rift run. The information was accurate, but Joe felt it didn't encompass the heroic thoughts behind the actions. He had been testing new monsters and techniques to keep everyone else safe.

That sparked a new round of discussion, with Diana glaring at him suspiciously and Travis quizzing Nik and Joe for details. He took down notes on all the new monsters and their loot drops. Joe was happy someone was keeping track of everything. Once things settled down, it would be better if he didn't have to escort everyone through their first couple of rift runs personally.

Finally, it was time for bed, and the group broke apart. Weapons were readied and left close at hand while half the group tried to get some sleep.

It didn't last. In the middle of the night, more roaring shook the stillness. The sound of crunching wood and scraping metal echoed to them in the early morning breeze. Everyone was awake in moments and standing with their weapons facing northwest. The hound still sounded far away, but no one was sleeping when it was this active. The sounds died down after twenty minutes, but no one moved to go back to sleep.

Finally, after an hour of silence, people drifted back to bed. Joe had finished his watch and gratefully slept on his mattress on the ground. He needed rest if he was going to tackle the rift again in the morning.

The morning was weirdly typical. The hound hadn't been close to them despite the sounds of destruction that had interrupted the night. Joe and Deena ate a bite and packed some clean water before heading out. They took a different route again, going through the small park near the rift as quietly and carefully as possible. There was no direct sign of the hound, but Joe saw the trees thrown around the carwash.

Unfortunately, he could also see a human arm sitting on the main road. Joe wasn't sure, but it looked to be where he'd left the head after the last hound fight. The thought chilled him to the bone. How intelligent were these things? The last one had been a powerful animal but still an animal. Was this one sending a message, or had it been careless in its feeding?

Ultimately it didn't matter, and both of them made it into the rift without incident. Joe breathed a sigh of relief as he walked into the magical murder hole in the air. Things had gotten ridiculous when entering the rift gave a feeling of safety.

"We each ran through the first four rooms solo last time to work on skills. You interested?"

"I'm game but you go first so I can get adjusted," Diana said.

Joe nodded and moved forward. He was glad Diana agreed as he had a few things he wanted to test. The essence from the low-level monsters wouldn't do much for him, but it was better than nothing. Joe still had two bonus attributes to earn before he was willing to level up, and he had some ideas.

The mana drain from his new passive was down to almost negligible. Joe was still running in the negative in the rift, but it was lower than last time. One more magical attribute would hopefully let him get above the break-even point. That left one more attribute, and Joe knew what he wanted.

Reflex. Joe had been tired at the end of his last rift run and hadn't noticed the issue immediately. Nik had recommended meditating on past fights for future improvement. Joe had initially been strangely reluctant but had agreed for one simple reason. Nik was a badass for some guy in his 50s. Joe had been injured too often in the last section of the rift, leading to an early exit as much as their exhaustion.

At first, Joe had attributed it to pure speed. The foxes and squirrels didn't hit hard and weren't tough, so they definitely had a speed-centric build. That said, Joe realized on even ground that he was as fast as they were, thanks to his class bonuses. It had taken a while, but Joe eventually realized that he couldn't properly utilize his speed. The squirrels had turned on a dime, and Joe had lost ground every time he had to react. All the speed in the world was useless if your body and mind couldn't keep up with it.

All those thoughts passed through Joe's mind again as he walked to the rift meadow. He had his glaive as usual but didn't charge forward. Joe calmly walked into the clearing and waited for the monsters to react to him. They frothed, screamed, and charged as usual while Joe stood still. He focused everything he had on the fight and moved at the very last second. Joe swung his glaive and killed one of the monsters, but he frowned.

The strike had bisected the monster cleanly, but it had carried through and hit the dirt. The weapon had only sunk in about an inch, but it was still a massive overswing. Joe reset his stance and waited for the other gnoll. The process repeated itself almost exactly, and Joe moved forward, leaving Deena to pick up the loot drops.

Joe moved to the next clearing and repeated the process. He continued to focus as much as possible on seeing everything around him and moving at the last possible second. As a secondary objective, he kept his movements as minimal as he thought would do the job, including his weapon strikes.

The results were eye-opening. Joe applied one hundred percent of his power to every fight regardless of his opponent. That wasn't a bad thing per se, as only a cocky asshole would commit less than their total strength to an unknown fight. Joe had watched DBZ and knew that was a recipe for disaster. The downside was it led to unnecessary tiredness on the longer rift runs and a brute force fighting style.

By necessity, rift runs had been limited early on, with the level of the early monsters matching him and his party. With a longer slog to reach monsters his level, some early sandbagging would make the later fights less of a dice roll. It wasn't easy, though. Joe wanted to sprint through what he now thought of as the 'newbie zones' as fast as possible to get to the real challenges and rewards.

Joe would probably still be doing that, but the new hound had changed things. He didn't have time to slog through the same old way and hope for the best. Every day and every run had a real opportunity for improvement, and Joe wouldn't allow himself to slack off any longer.

The first four clearings took longer than last time, and Joe wasn't any happier with his movements than he'd been on the first fight. Deena hadn't interrupted his concentration during any of the fights, and Joe appreciated that. Once he sat down, she peppered him with questions.

"That was a lot slower than I expected. What exactly are you trying to do? Is it related to attributes or just fight style?"

"A little of both," Joe said with a self-deprecating grin. "I want to raise my reflex, and my complete lack of actual fighting training has given me a lot of bad habits. Bad habits that didn't make themselves completely obvious until we hit the new section."

Deena nodded and started to stretch to loosen herself up. They waited for about fifteen minutes, and then she took the lead back the way they had come. Joe noticed she'd brought an axe, like any sensible person facing a killer tree, but left it strapped to her back. Instead, she used Joe's old brass knuckles on the one hand and another one they'd scavenged on the other.

Her fights looked a lot like the ones Joe had just finished. She waited until the last second to dodge and struck out with her fists in rapid succession. Each pass crippled a monster, and she went back to finish them once all of them were messed up. Joe wasn't sure if it was her strength or the weapons that kept Deena from finishing the monsters in one pass. He held his peace until she was done with her run through the clearings.

"What made you decide to switch from the spear?"

Deena didn't answer for a moment, her breath still heaving from four solo fights in a row. Joe appreciated the attributes from his class and his early knowledge of bonus attributes every time he fought with people using common classes. The gap could quickly close later with the right skills and experience, but right now, all the uncommons were operating on a different level.

"The spear never seemed to work well with my class skill. I tried a few things on my last rift run, and the brass knuckles worked the best. It felt like a completely different skill when I used them."

"Aren't you concerned about the range and limited damage?"

"Yeah," Deena admitted, "I'm hoping to get Mike the materials to upgrade them to something more like a cestus soon. I don't like having to be up close and personal, but in the next section, I'll show you the skill. It will be worth it at some point, and the sooner I switch, the sooner I get good."

"That makes sense," Joe nodded. "Mind if I solo the fox?"

Deena waved at Joe and he moved forward with a grin.