"Well, damn..." Lucius felt deflated after defeating the large bug, and the rest of the juveniles, that had slipped in with it. He stood over the corpses, shirtless, sweating, and struggling to regain his breath.

"This isn't going to work. It’s too dangerous if these things can have abilities we don’t know about" Lucius realized. "We got lucky this time. I was able to dodge the acid attacks, and kill the bug, before it could break out of the cage. But if we want to finish off the whole swarm, we need a new strategy."

"Don’t look at me, you’ve clearly been the brains of this team." Jack replied. "That really makes me angry, though. If we just had a way to make sure only the little ones got in, everything would have been fine"

Lucius' eyes lit up, Jack’s words sparked an idea. "Double-check that intelligence stat of yours, I think you might be a genius!"

Jack squinted, suspicious. "Are you, making fun of me?"

Grinning wide and chuckling, Lucius responded, "Haha. No, I'm serious. You said it would be fine, if we could just let the little ones in, right? Well, why can’t we? Just make sure you only open the window wide enough for the small ones to squeeze inside!"

Jack muttered, considering. "That... that is so stupidly simple, it might actually work."

"It will work—I know it!" Lucius replied. "We can kill all the small ones, to get as strong as we can! I just hope it will be enough. If we haven’t gotten much stronger, or learned new skills, by the time we’re done with the juveniles, we might be in trouble."

"Okay, if we're doing it this way, I need to make sure I don’t screw it up. Hold on a minute," Jack said, walking out of the bathroom, and into the store. A few minutes later, he returned with some nails, a hammer, and a ruler. Jack used the ruler to measure the juvenile bodies. The creatures were just over 5 inches wide, from their bellies to the tip of their heads. Like the crabs they resembled, the Abyss bugs were much longer than they were wide, reaching a little over a foot long without even counting wings or legs.

Jack measured above the top of the window, then he hammered a few nails into the windowsill, so the window could only be open to exactly 5 inches before hitting the nails. "There. Now I can’t screw it up" Jack smiled, admiring his work. "Oh, one more thing." Jack pried two handles off the cabinets, then pulled one of the cabinet doors off its hinges, and nailed the handles to the center of it, so someone could slip their arm through one handle and grab the other, like a makeshift shield. It wasn’t comfortable, but it would work. "This should block a few acid shots, when the time comes."

Those few simple actions had gained Jack more than he was expecting. "I just unlocked a talent... Crude Craftsmanship - Level 1."

Lucius tilted his head. "The way talents are unlocked doesn’t make much sense. You got that talent for hammering a few nails, but I built a whole cage and didn’t get it." He said curiously.

"Yeah, but you got that amazing damage-buffing skill for attacking the bugs, exactly like I was doing, and I didn’t." Jack replied. "I think it has to do with a person’s character, or maybe alignment. This shop you are standing in always needs something fixed, and my family is not rich, so me and dad always did it all ourselves. He didn't exactly teach me how to do things right, but he taught me how to make it work somehow. Fixing things is second nature to me."

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"That would explain why I unlocked Sense Danger, right after the system showed up," Lucius mused. "I’ve had a rough life, enough that I’m a paranoid mess, always expecting something to go wrong. I used to think it was a curse, its not fun dealing with constant anxiety. But now, it’s saving my life over and over." He paused, bitter but grateful. "I wonder why I unlocked Assassination, though. I don’t see how that fits my character."

"Really?" Jack smirked. "Five minutes into the apocalypse, and you were already setting up a trap to lure monsters to their deaths. You didn’t even flinch when it came time to slaughter them. For most people, killing would be traumatic, at least at first, like it was for me. Face it, you’re good at killing things."

Lucius glanced at the floor, a somber expression taking over his face. "That's… disturbing. I always knew I was messed up, anyone who lived my life would be, but I didn’t know I was that messed up."

"Hey, at least you care that you don’t care. That means you’ve still got a heart in there, right?" Jack said, trying to lighten the mood. "Forget about that for now. Let’s test our upgraded window, and see if this plan works!"

"OK, but I want to try something with the next batch. Don't in a lot this time, actually, just let in one if you can, then leave the room for me." Lucius instructed, crouching low to stay out of the cage’s line of sight. "I’m going to see if my other characteristic can be useful."

"Sure, just be careful," Jack replied, pulling the window up until it bumped against the nails. Almost immediately, the creatures swarmed, and Jack started to push the window down. He ended up catching a bug's back legs in the window, trapping it with buzzing wings. "Oops, did I mess up?"

"No that's perfect, go!" whispered Lucius, as he waved Jack out of the room. With the bugs legs jammed in the window its field of view was massively restricted, that was perfect for what Lucius wanted to try. After Jack left the room, Lucius settled into his crouched position. It was surprising comfortable, his upgraded strength and dexterity showing him new ways that he was different from before. He felt like he could stay crouched like this, forever, without getting sore.

After a few minutes, the bugs angry buzzing and scrambling to gain its freedom calmed down. It was still trying to free itself, but not in such a panicked frenzy, like before. Lucius took that as his signal to start moving. He gently lifted his front leg, and stretched it out in front of his body, placing his foot back on the floor from heel to toe in a manner that made the movement perfectly silent.

Lucius was well practiced in making himself invisible. When your parents were alcoholics, not being seen was absolutely essential to your wellbeing. Even after Lucius had long fled that terrible home, he still felt constant anxiety. He lived in a state of hypervigilance, from the trauma he had gone through. So, even when he didn't need to hide anymore, he kept doing it.

Lucius moved across the room in this manner, remaining absolutely silent. When he reached the side of the cage, he made sure that he was positioned directly opposite of the creatures eyes, then, he rose up from the floor. Lucius aimed his spear for that one certain weak spot, that exists on every creatures backside, the one that resembles a bullseye.

Without warning, Lucius exploded, with as much force as his muscles could generate, squeezing every ounce of power out of his newly upgraded attributes. With a whooshing sound, like a thin stick being swung through the air, the spear struck true. Lucius's eyes opened wide with surprise, the spear was driven entirely through the unsuspecting creature in a single attack.

You have defeated juvenile abyssal insectum level 3.

Congratulations! You have developed a unique aspect! “Feet of the Thief”