There was a bit of a problem with my plan. Even calling it that was a lot of an overstatement, it was more of a loose idea that I hoped would work. The crabs clearly reacted to me whenever I entered their zone of influence, but they also had base instincts that they’d indulge in when given the chance. My thought was pretty simple: what if I threw a corpse over the line?

I’d tried distracting him with one right outside my tunnel, but the crab didn’t bite. Hell, he never even glanced at the finely selected meal I’d laid out for him. Did this crab have surprisingly high standards or something or did it ignore its instincts entirely? I needed to find out.

The risky part of this plan was not knowing exactly where the aggro range started. I knew the clever shit wouldn’t follow me into the tunnels, but how far out would it start chasing me? The hulking crustacean would outspeed me for sure and run me down if I let it, so if its range increased with its size, I could get myself killed here pretty easily.

So I did something that some people might consider distasteful. I stood a good fifty feet away from where I figured his zone would start, the stiff leg of a corpse in one hand. Then, just like with that first crab, I spun around in a circle before flinging it as hard as I could towards the crustacean. I may not have gotten much faster in these caves, but I’d gotten way stronger. The corpse flew through the air, guts spilling out in the absence of wind. Honestly, it was a beautiful sight in a macabre sort of way. It wasn’t exactly every day that you saw bodies soar through the not-skies with all the grace of a brick. It was unusual for me at least but hey, you do you.

The body hit the floor with a heavy smack, and that got Maine’s attention. The crab raced over to the cadaver and started making gross noises as his spiny legs tore the person apart for consumption. I almost ran straight for the crystal, but caution got the better of me. I would have loved to just sprint up to it and get this over with, but this stupid crab behaved totally differently than the others. What if it got up from its meal to eat me instead?

I’d die, that’s what. So that was a bad idea. Instead, I snuck around so that the crystal would be directly between me and the giant, feasting crustacean and slowly made my way forward. It could still see me in theory, but at least I had some cover. Shockingly, between that and my stealthiest walk over smooth terrain that couldn’t make any noise, I managed to reach the crystal without any crabby surprises. Now for the hard part. If I moved it, the thing could notice and run over, so I had to make my choices quickly in hopes that I could get my boost before starting combat. That was doable. Probably.

I placed my hands on the crystal, prepared to metaphorically mash my way through the words on the screen.

Calculating experience…

You have reached level 10!

+8 strength, +8 agility, +8 resilience!

Class choices available.

Class selection

Base Classes:

Fighter

Acrobat

Defender

Scout

Advanced Classes:

Pain Enthusiast

Wrestler

You have become a Wrestler!

+5 strength, +5 agility, +5 resilience!

You have learned Mount!

Calculating experience…

You have reached level 4!

+6 strength, +6 agility, +6 resilience!

I ignored the rest, pulling my hands off the crystal as soon as the heat coursing through my body slowed down, desperate to get any additional boost. In the back of my mind, I noticed the sounds of eating stop right as I grabbed the crystal once more.

Calculating experience…

You have reached Brawler level 26!

+18 strength, +18 agility, +18 resilience!

You have learned Cross!

Calculating experience…

You have reached Pugilist level 15!

+10 strength, +10 agility, +10 resilience!

Lawrence Schlager

Classes

Brawler: 26

Pugilist: 15

Wrestler: 4

Professions

N/A

Ability Scores

Health: 311/2000

Strength: 196

Agility: 191

Resilience: 200

Magic: 0

Spirit:0

Awareness: 66

Passive Skills

Infinite Scaling

Unarmed Combat: 29

Pain Tolerance: 17

Masochist: 11

Lumberjacking: 5

Wrestling: 11

Active Skills

Dimension Tearing: 6

Jab: 21

Straight: 9

Cross: 1

Mount: 1

Boons

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Dungeon Blessing

Power surged through my body, sending me stumbling backwards. Before I had time to wrap my head around all of it, I saw the crab barreling towards me. It looked like he had to go around the crystal, presumably because some part of a dungeon dweller's base instincts were driven by a need to protect said dungeon. Charging headfirst into a probably fragile crystal sounded like the opposite protection, and Maine seemed to agree.

I sprinted away from the crab at a slight angle, giving me time to get used to my newly improved body. It was incredible. However many extra stats I’d just gotten, the end result was that I was the faster one now and could barely make it to the tunnel without it catching me. Maybe I was only faster when not running in a straight line, but I could still work with that. If I used serpentines like I did to dodge arrows earlier, then I’d be just fine.

Now that I was safe, I pulled up my stats again to get a look at all my new goodies, marveling at the stats most of all. More than forty points in all the things I cared most about would go a long way. Hell, it already had. Being faster than the first crab was the only reason I was still alive, and I was way stronger too.

Next I looked at and mapped my newest active skills. Between trying them out and getting a feel for them in general, I came up with an idea. I was starting to get to the point where my jabs were empowered by my skill even if I didn’t say the magic word, and that was a good place to be. Still, what if I didn’t have to shout my moves out at all? If I’d been able to just do the move instinctively or at least only have to think it, then I’d have been much faster back then. That could have saved me from taking an arrow or two which could really add up. After all, I was still recovering from the damage that I’d been dealt by those people, and fighting the strongest enemy I’d ever seen in such a state just felt stupid.

Instead, I looked towards the southern tunnel and practiced my skills. Mount only worked if there was something to mount, so I made use of the crab bodies I had lying around. Hoping it would help with the skill improvements, I did the same with my other actives. Once they were dead, I couldn’t exactly tell them apart from each other, so it was anyone’s guess which crab I was pummeling, but they were somehow even less recognizable by the time I was done.

Cross was the perfect addition, coming out at a speed between a jab and a straight with the power to match. Combined with the positioning, it lended itself great to combos. I wasn’t paying close enough attention to the crystal when getting my power up to notice, but I figured this was a new addition from an old class. It didn’t really feel like a wrestling move at least, unless this was more professional and less Greek. Judging by the mount skill though, I was pretty sure that wasn’t the case.

Speaking of, that move was incredible. I could take to the creature and hold it down way faster than before, even with the added delay of saying it out loud. Judging by my health recovery, I spent a few hours doing nothing but practicing my skills and trying to internalize the commands. Jab worked immediately, letting me unleash the punches faster than ever before. Honestly, while it would be cool to not even need to think the word, I wasn’t even sure if I could improve from here. The unskilled punches didn’t seem to come up any faster, but maybe that would change in combat. Or not. We’d see.

Straight took a lot more practice, but it got most of the way there as well, even if it did take a while. The rest were a total wash, completely impossible. I probably needed a certain skill level to reach that level of familiarity, especially since my straight still required a more involved thought than a jab did. It was like the difference between a spoken thought and an unspoken one, internal monologue versus wordless thinking. It was hard to explain, but the jab was crazy fast while the straight was only a little faster than saying it had been. I’d take what I could get though.

Even after all of that time spent practicing, I still barely broke four hundred health. Stupid fucking arrows. I really needed a better way to deal with ranged attacks, especially considering all the advantages I’d had in that fight. If they hadn’t been freezing, hadn’t been in relatively close quarters, and hadn’t had to deal with the giant crab too, then I’d be dead. Super dead. As it was, I barely got out of there alive, and increasing numbers could only do so much. Hell, the big guy might still be stronger than me even with my new stats. I certainly didn’t feel strong enough to hold back a giant crab. Yet.

That would be a good test, actually. Not right now since my health was pretty low, but just in general. Either way, I obviously wasn’t going to make any progress on Maine until a day had passed and I had way more health, so I needed to pass the time. Sadly, with a kill squad at my back, sitting around doing benches was still just as bad of an idea as it was a few hours ago. Practicing while facing their only path of approach was one thing, but laying on the ground, vulnerable, while a potential hunter was out there? That just sounded like suicide.

Fortunately, there were two more unguarded tunnels in Compass Cave, and the big boy had claustrophobia despite not having claws. Deciding that I’d always wanted to visit Boston, I headed to the east first, sprinting while watching my yankee friend. The big fucker really did have a larger aggro range, zeroing in on me well before the smaller ones would have. It didn’t matter though, I still made it to the tunnel well before he could catch me, but that was probably thanks to my increased speed. Turned out being a little cautious paid off at times.

I made it barely a dozen feet down the tunnel before I heard skittering in the distance. Deciding to keep my streak going, I stopped where I was, slowly backing away just in case. Just because the big guy out there didn’t like tight spaces didn’t mean my new friend wouldn’t be even bigger. Thankfully, he was just a regular old giant crab rather than the bigger and smarter variant from the north. The perfect test subject.

It charged at me with the same speed as the others, but this time my side step was even faster. I moved past it, reaching around the middle of the tail for a grapple. My muscles bulged as the running monster came to a screeching halt, tearing gouts in the stone floor as it did. With force I’d never had before, I slammed the creature backwards in the most powerful suplex of all time. Still, it wasn’t enough to crack the thick shell or even the stone, reminding me that I still wasn’t stronger than it, just smarter.

“Mount.”

Suddenly I was upon it, giving it very little room to move as I focused entirely on my combo. Cross had conditions as well, though it wasn’t a simple cooldown. I could only use it after two jabs or a straight, so my new combo on the crabs was straight, cross, jab, jab, cross. With the added speed of my two oldest punches, I was able to fit the entire combo in the same period of time as before despite substituting two of the moves for slower and stronger versions.

Still, the crab lay on the ground in my pin. The wrestling skill along with mount gave me little hints as to how to move slightly, keeping the incredibly simplistic creature from escaping my grip. Another two lightning fast jabs were all I got before I felt a tail slap against me, the creature forgoing escape for attack.

I got off immediately, unwilling to take any more damage than I had to. Of course, the suplex combo worked just as well now as it did before. The crustaceans were simply too large and slow to do anything about it, so I introduced it to the ground a few more times, stopping at the second cross from now on. It didn’t take much of that before it died pitifully.

I reveled in my new power. I was now fast enough to make use of these creatures' greatest weakness, even in these tight corridors. I no longer needed to cheat to kill them; now I could just fight them head on and still win. A grin split my face as I charged down the tunnel, hungry for more.