Luck was on my side in more ways than one. Not only were there no ambushers waiting to take me out of the game, but I even got my wish granted. When I headed north past Compass Cave, I found even more crabs!

With my newly improved strength, I decided to take them head on, and it did wonders for my self esteem. My hands easily stopped the giant crab in its tracks, arresting its movement before I started throwing it around as I pleased. I felt powerful, strong, and that was before I tried uppercutting one. The gap between an active skill and just doing something on instinct was huge. While it took most of my strength to stop a giant crab head on, my uppercut sent them tumbling. Not that the long crustaceans could really tumble, but it was impressive all the same.

The giant head went up in the air as the legs grasped for the safety of the ground. A swift heel kick to the dome helped it find its footing more quickly. All in all, these things weren’t a challenge for me back when my stats were nearly a hundred points lower. Now, I could meet them head on without worry.

Deciding to focus on skill levels, I started holding them back and just uppercutting them until they died. It was unceremonious and more than a little sad to see, but I really wanted those skill levels. As much as I couldn’t really tell the difference between the damage of jab level 1 and jab level 20, I could do one with barely a thought while the other forced me to shout my moves out loud. Just in case I wanted to become a murder hobo in the future, I’d like to have my moves be as quiet as possible. Fighting those people had made it clear just how scary it is when you can’t tell the difference between an active skill and a regular attack. Otherwise, I doubt my attackers would have tried to block me so often.

So I just plowed through a few crabs, punching them to death until I made my way to what could only be a boss room. This big cavern stretched out in front of me with an even larger crab in the middle, staring at me ominously. While a normal crab was long but still around my waist in height, this big boy was as tall as me. Even Maine hadn’t been this big. Truly, this was the King Crab I was up against.

I suspected that he’d be just as if not smarter than Maine had been, so there was little point in stalling this out. He wouldn’t behave like any of the others, so I’d just have to figure out a strategy on the fly. Yep, that was definitely the reason I was charging in headfirst without a plan. It had absolutely nothing to do with just wanting to beat the shit out of more things to get even stronger.

Fine, I’d admit that I was feeling a little impatient. I’d had to sit around forever to get my health back and I couldn’t even do something productive in the meantime. Combined with how close I’d gotten to actually dying against those ambushers, I really wanted a good fight. The crabs on the way in were glorified punching bags at this point and didn’t count. No, I needed to fight something face to face, no numbers games, no strategy, just seeing how strong I really am.

We charged towards each other, and I could already tell how powerful I’d gotten. The increase to my agility was most noticeable when I sprinted, but I hadn’t really gotten the chance after escaping. Those nice men in the furs were a little too clingy for that. But now, the full force of my powerful legs was on display, and still the king before me was faster.

But was he stronger?

He charged straight into me, trying to barrel me over before chewing me up with those creepy leg feelers that were constantly reaching out from underneath the carapace. I politely declined, giving him a one word answer to let him know exactly how I felt.

“Uppercut.”

It was my strongest attack so far, but even that couldn’t bring the charging crustacean to a halt. King Crab slowed down as my fist rocked into his underside, getting chewed on slightly by the feeler legs on the way in. The power of the attack had been enough to concuss the smaller ones, preventing them from responding at all. Sadly, royalty was tougher than that.

My hand came back covered in blood but still intact, showing the real value of my improved resilience as well as this attack. It was powerful enough to take no damage on the way in which would normally be good enough. Had I tried a weaker punch, I’d be one handed right now, just like when I’d first challenged a crab all those days ago.

With my other arm, I pushed back to stall for time. I knew I couldn’t get through the shell just like I knew my other punches wouldn’t do jack all against him. Sadly, uppercut was on a cooldown.

Suddenly, the king’s carapace began to glow as he stopped his forward assault, slowly pulling backwards.

I’d always wondered why monsters didn’t have active skills, but just assumed they either did and I couldn’t notice or that they couldn’t for whatever reason. But I was keenly aware of the difference between my regular punches and my uppercut, so I’d surely know if a monster had used something similar. Now I’d finally get to see it first hand.

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This huge crab was stronger than me by a fair bit, tankier by a ton, and still somehow faster. There was only one response to seeing it charge a finishing move.

I sprinted the fuck out of there as fast as I could, hoping desperately that I’d get away in time. Even with all of my speed and my fast reaction time, I barely reached the entrance to the cavern before the light around the crab exploded outwards, sending spears of ice nearly a dozen feet tall ripping through the ground in all directions. The entire area within forty feet of the king had been turned into a winter wonderland of death.

That had to be cheating. I was a dedicated build that took no wasted classes, no wasted skills, and only put points into physical stats. On top of that, I’d easily grinded over a hundred points in each of those same stats, effectively making me dozens of levels higher than I was on paper, and that didn’t include the extra levels in those classes beyond their normal limits.

How the fuck could I be this much weaker than the King Crab at the thing I’m best at, when it was also able to do this shit?

Clearly, having no magic stat was continuing to fuck me over. The disadvantage even existed compared to the fucking monsters.

Running back into the room, I used the massive spears of ice as cover to approach the giant crustacean, determined to use this opportunity to go for some grappling. Sadly, they didn’t really use their eyes anyways, so my stealth failed me. As soon as I got close, meandering through the forest of ice, all the spears turned to dust, allowing the big fucker to charge right at me.

We tangled the same as before, all the way down to the bloody uppercut. I didn’t have too many of those left in me though, and the crab seemed just fine. This really wasn’t working. Even worse, it slowly began to charge up again while I held it back.

Really?! It could just keep firing those off one after another?

I ran away, flipping the king the bird as I went. I was definitely strong enough to take Maine now. Hell, I could take a few of the other crabs at once too. Sadly, the king was a different beast entirely. Without some shell crackers or a magic attack of my own, I wasn’t getting anywhere with him. All it would take was one mess up on my part and I’d die, but he could keep going like this all day, maybe even longer.

“This sucks.”

Nobody responded, which was honestly ideal. If someone were around then I’d probably have to fight them. Why else would they be here if not to kill me? Apparently, that was the sole purpose of coming to this cave!

Oh well. I’d just go back to the flesh caves with my magic rock, get a couple more levels, and then find a new cave to spelunk in. And the next time some uppity asshole tried to threaten me for stepping in their turf, I’d just get a little bonus exp. I really wasn’t in the mood for anymore bullshit.

Or…

I just got an idea. A potentially dangerous, definitely unwise and ridiculously ballsy idea. Honestly though, those were my favorite kind.

If the dungeons I could access weren’t good enough, maybe I could make a new one? I’d originally come to this world by tearing into a dungeon, and I’d proved I could exit one if I wanted to. Maybe, just maybe, I could picture a dungeon with enemies at just the right level for me to fight and grind. I could even make it away from the plains, perfect for keeping the murderers away.

Excited with my new idea, I headed out the dungeon and ran towards the gym. It wasn’t that I couldn’t work out anymore, I just had to change my exercises.

“Banana!”

As soon as I got there, I began to tear at reality, determined to open a hole to the perfect dungeon. Someplace where the monsters were challenging but beatable with my skill set. Something that wasn’t a tanky crab or a fast as fuck bee, but more like something in between. If I could outspeed them by just a bit or out punch them, then I’d be set.

“Banana!”

The world rippled around me, trying desperately to stop my intervention with its precious status quo. It would be disappointed. I refused to relent, pouring all of my concentration into the task. The air would waver faintly with each iteration, and in time I discovered how to press that to my advantage. There was a technique to it, more a dance than a battle, pulling and pushing like the tide endlessly attempting to wash away the beach. All I had to do was lull the dimensional wall into my rhythm, make it think it’s safe, and then suddenly—

“BANANA!”

I tear reality a new one, ripping a hole in space itself. The world screams, air rushes out like I’d just caused an explosion, and everything seems to tilt around me. It was almost as if I were on a boat that began listing to the side, or maybe like it had run aground. I couldn’t be sure which; I wasn’t much of a boatsman.

Still, it worked. I tore through the fabric of reality and made myself a new dungeon, one that looked different from any I’d ever seen before.

An enormous gaping maw in the world stretched far into the ground below, a shimmering golden light given off from an impossibly black void that split the earth in front of me, nearly ten feet long and half as wide. I’d succeeded, though it cost me my entire gym.

While I’d initially started away from all of my stuff, I really got into the skill. Following the telegraphed weaknesses caused me to move around just enough to send the rend in space directly through my bench press.

A worthy sacrifice. With any luck, I could leave mundane exercises behind me for the glory of combat. And, if this one didn’t pan out, I could always make another. But for now, I had a new reality to explore.