Calculating experience…
You have reached level 10!
+12 strength, +12 agility, +12 resilience!
Class choices available.
Class selection
Base Classes:
Fighter
Acrobat
Defender
Scout
Advanced Classes:
Pain Enthusiast
Boxer
Pro Wrestler
That was a harder choice than I expected. Sure I’d meant to follow the punch-life through to the end, but everyone wanted to be a professional wrestler. The accolades, the fame, the opportunity to go into a ring and just be a big guy slamming around another big guy. It was the kind of life that everyone dreamed of.
But I couldn’t let my emotions get the better of me. I could always go for that class later if I didn’t master my boxer skill, but for now my choice was all too clear.
You have become a Boxer!
+5 strength, +5 agility, +5 resilience!
You have learned Uppercut!
Calculating experience…
You have reached level 1!
Calculating experience…
You have reached Brawler level 31!
+10 strength, +10 agility, +10 resilience!
Calculating experience…
You have reached Pugilist level 20!
+10 strength, +10 agility, +10 resilience!
Calculating experience…
Lawrence Schlager
Classes
Brawler: 31
Pugilist: 20
Wrestler: 10
Boxer: 1
Professions
N/A
Ability Scores
Health: 1791/2430
Strength: 269
Agility: 287
Resilience: 243
Magic: 0
Spirit:0
Awareness: 67
Passive Skills
Infinite Scaling
Unarmed Combat: 33
Pain Tolerance: 19
Masochist: 13
Lumberjacking: 5
Wrestling: 17
Active Skills
Dimension Tearing: 6
Jab: 23
Straight: 15
Cross: 10
Mount: 10
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Boons
Dungeon Blessing
I barely had enough experience to reach my next class, using the double tap method to get my bonus levels as well. Based on the rate I’d been improving lately, my days of leveling strength and agility were behind me. At least, they wouldn’t be increasing with training anymore. I might still get some points in resilience during combat, but I’d need to level up to get stronger or faster.
Fortunately, that’s where my beautiful new friend came in. I stuffed the crystal into my running carapace, hoping to get some better armor made with the stuff after leaving here. Speaking of which, I could hear the sounds of combat in the cave beyond. By that, what I really meant was that people were cursing and shouting violently at my good buddy, Maine. Sadly, I already knew how this would end. The spear and shield guy was with the group from before and they seemed determined to make real progress. It was only a matter of time before they came for me.
Time was up, and I needed to get out of here. With my bundle of goodies under my arm, I activated my strongest ability by saying my safe word.
“Banana.”
Nothing happened. Worse than that, I could no longer hear shouting from the cave. They were coming for me and my dimension tearing wasn’t working. This wasn’t good. I needed to leave, to be anywhere but here. Frantically, I tried to remember exactly what I did to escape the stupid test server in the first place, recalling the scraping and pulling motions I’d made. To the best of my ability, I attempted to recreate that scene, tearing my hands through the air after dropping my goodies on the ground.
“Banana. Banana. Banana! BANANA!”
I felt the fabric of reality in front of me and really the saying was quite accurate. It felt like I was pushing my hands into a linen sheet and ripping an opening for me to go through. Still, I couldn’t seem to manifest an actual opening despite the feeling that I was doing it correctly. Maybe this was some weird magic thing where I needed to have something specific in mind for it to work?
Remembering my first trip through dimensions, I thought of my first encounter with people in this miserable world. I thought of Lorie and the dungeon of flesh, and finally I felt the fabric tear in front of me. Grabbing hold of my goodies with one hand, I reached towards the space I’d rent before to finish the job.
“Banana!”
Seeing the ominous gap in space before me, I charged through just as an arrow caught my leg. The group had caught up to me, but I wouldn’t let that slow me down. A second shot pierced my hip as I fell through the tear, and I hoped they couldn’t follow me through.
This time, falling through realities was a lot more pleasant. Instead of ending up in a prison of flesh, I just fell through open space before landing on the ground. I sat up quickly, pulling the arrows out of me with a grunt. As much as I didn’t want to lose the health from bleeding, I’d need my full mobility in a fight. Fortunately, it turned out to be unnecessary, the dimensional tear closing as soon as I went through. At least, there wasn’t any pathway for them to immediately follow me. Maybe there was still a hole on the other side or something, but that was someone else’s problem. I was safe.
With a sigh, I flopped onto the ground, looking around the nice gray cave system that seemed so much calmer than the bluish colored variant I’d just left.
A face peeked out in front of me that left me pleasantly surprised. I should have known this would happen, but I’d forgotten somewhere between the first and second arrow I’d eaten.
“You going to make a habit of dropping in on me, Red?”
Lorie looked down at me with more surprise than amusement, but there were plenty of both. Honestly, now that I knew a little dimensional tearing would take me to her side, I couldn’t pretend like it wasn’t tempting.
“Maybe,” I dragged the word out, sitting up to look at my surroundings. Just a regular ass gray, stone cave system. No monsters aside from a corpse nearby that looked about half dissected. “Not my fault you’re so damn pleasant to be around.”
She seemed slightly surprised by how forward I was being, but several near death encounters left me feeling a bit funky. Also, I hadn’t talked to people in weeks. Actually that was a great question.
“Now don’t take this the wrong way, I’m just really bad at tracking time while neck deep in dungeons. Just how long has it been since you last saw me?”
Judging by the look on her face, she was very willing to believe me. Was I really that scatterbrained? The evidence was pretty damning at this point.
“I’d say nearly seven weeks.”
Fuck! That meant I’d been in the dungeon for around five since I grinded a bit before going in. That wasn’t good. No wonder I’d been jumped by that other team; I’d been a sitting duck just waiting for someone to mug me. Not like the people at the alliance didn’t know I had money now; I spent every morning selling monster parts for two weeks. Damn!
“I’m even worse at tracking time than I thought then. You wouldn’t happen to know where this is would you? I’m guessing that you actually walked here, so I’d bet you do. Hi, by the way.”
I got the slightest smirk out of her before she got more serious again. As friendly as we were, I did just fall out of the sky with two arrows in me, so a little suspicion and caution was more than fair.
“I do, but I’d like to hear more about how you got here first.”
I didn’t really want to give away my biggest secret, but the cat was already out of the bag. The people I ran away from watched me literally fall through space, and they clearly wouldn’t be keeping any secrets for me. Hell, after spending weeks in the dungeon, they could spin up whatever story they wanted without me being able to defend myself. Worst of all, I really did kill some people so it’s not like it would be a complete lie. I really was boned, huh?
“Yea, that seems fair. So I was in the new dungeon, right?”
With no reason not to, I just told her everything. Well not everything, I skipped the parts about grinding stats since apparently nobody did it like I did and it might reveal my divine association which could only be bad for me. Other than that though, I talked all about fighting those people, killing crabs, and nabbing the crystal. She hadn’t exactly missed the giant carapace housing a valuable object, but it was still fun to watch her eyebrows go up every few sentences.
“You sure keep busy, Red.”
She was being cautious with her words since I’d obviously just solo’d half a DL5, but that was just fine with me. She’d come around, hopefully.
“That’s rich coming from you. How far into this dungeon are you and how many does it make just this week?”
That got a genuine smile out of the woman which warmed my cold, unfeeling heart. Not really. Well, it did make me feel things, but that wasn’t all that uncommon. After all, I got a surge of emotions after killing those people. Powerful feelings like pride and satisfaction. Clearly I was still quite human.
“Oh shut it. My sister and I are trying to get strong and rich enough to move to the next town. As you head further towards the middle of the Rift Plains, avoiding the forts, you get more dangerous, less claimed dungeons. That’s where the real coin is.”
“You had me at more dangerous,” I followed up, leaning in conspiratorially. That got a laugh from her as she waved her hand.
“Please, you’re a bigger threat than anywhere I’m trying to go. No offense, Red, but I’m not teaming up with a guy who managed to get a body count before the seasons changed.”
“Honestly? Fair. So should I just follow the tree line southeast until I find some more dungeons?”
She nodded, clearly amused by the situation. It really was an odd one. For the second time, I’d literally fallen out of the ceiling in front of her and relied on her to bail me out and set me straight. Really, it was a shame that she wouldn’t trust me with her back. Or her front. You know, on second thought, it was probably best that she didn’t. I’d be tempted to be a whole lot less productive with her keeping me company.
“Well don’t let me get in your way. If you ever need someone to kill shit for you, then you know who to call. Just don’t be too shocked if I fall out of the sky again some time in the future. It’s something like a panic ability and you’re like my safe space. Later!”
I actually got her to blush slightly before taking off in the world’s shortest lived sprint. Sadly, I had taken an arrow to the hip and leg not that many minutes ago.
“Ow. Walking it is.”
I grumbled to myself as I made my way to the exit.
“Hey, Red,” Lorie called after me, giving me hope for a moment. That was also short lived. “The exit’s that way.”
Of course it was. Refusing to be embarrassed by my less than impressive display, I made my way out of the caves with my crystal and carapace in tow. I had no idea where to go from here, especially if I was low-key wanted for murder, but that would be fine. Actually, I should probably ask.
“By the way,” I called out behind me, unwilling to look her in the eye while saying this out loud. “You wouldn’t happen to know if I’m wanted for murder, would you?”
That definitely killed the mood judging by the long silence. If she wasn’t planning to avoid me before, then that sealed the deal.
“…Not officially, no...”
Good enough for me! Time to check out my next town.