Penelope’s punches sliced through the air in rapid motion, followed by kicks that arched perfectly, striking out like chopping axes. She breathed sharply with every attack to be stamina efficient. Her class, [Fist Fighter], displayed its entire splendor, due to the Master System that granted her the capability to execute flawless techniques with every strike. Martial artists who dedicated their lives to training couldn't hope to match her precision and grace.

However, despite the perfection of her movements, every attack missed its intended target.

A goblin’s fist, shrouded in an white Aura, landed between her strikes, connecting directly with her abdomen. Penelope’s doe-like eyes widened in pain as the air was expelled from her lungs. Collapsing to her knees, she spat up saliva.

The victorious goblin, poised to claw her eyes out, was abruptly lifted by a meaty hand, its bulbous green head held high. Another sizable hand delivered a resounding smack, rendering the creature unconscious.

Lucian was standing over Penelope in his [Angry Gremlin] form, sleeping goblin in hand. In his red eyes, filled with chagrin, Penelope's keeled-over figure reflected.

His sharp-toothed mouth opened, and in a raspy tone, he said, “I can’t believe you actually missed every single attack like that…”

“Can’t…breathe…” Penelope gasped, clutching her stomach, which felt as if it had been struck by a baseball bat.

“Yea, we attack type Anointed don’t have good defenses, especially at the Base Anointed level. You might want to dodge more.”

When Penelope managed to return to normal, she began making excuses, “This grass is too slippery! That goblin was unusually quick!”

“It’s alright,” Lucian assuaged with a nod, “We can try again.”

“Alright…” she replied, not enthusiastic about fighting again.

Soon, the goblin awoke, finding itself confronted by a young woman with raven pigtails, staring at it from a few yards away. Recognizing a challenge, the monster swiftly launched its attack. The human female exhibited speed and precision in her movements, but the goblin, confident from a prior victory, believed she was merely bluffing.

The young woman soon found herself overwhelmed as the goblin utilized its Aura-infused attack to sweep her off her feet. Just as the monster was about to land a finishing blow, a much larger human male intervened, knocking it unconscious with a resounding slap.

“I wasn’t ready that time!” Penelope cried out. “And that goblin must be one of the fastest goblins in history!”

Lucian remained thoughtful, his chin in hand as he pondered the situation.

“We’ll go again,” Lucian decided tonelessly.

She faced the same goblin once more and suffered defeat. Instead of offering excuses or complaining, Penelope stood in silence, her dark blue eyes downcast. Her pigtails and martial arts gi whipped as a lonely gust of wind blew through the forest.

Throughout her life, she had acknowledged her lack of competence. However, the realization that she was deemed incompetent even after being remade as an Anointed hit her hard. How could she, now a literal super-powered being, still feel like such an inept person? It was a bitter truth, and Penelope couldn't help but find it all too sad.

A humorless laugh escaped her lips. “Can you believe I’m this bad, Lucian?” Penelope couldn’t muster tears; she had hit rock bottom. “Why was I even born? What’s the purpose of failing in everything? Is this funny to God, to watch me stumble without end?”

“Hmm,” Lucian hummed thoughtfully, his focus remaining on Penelope.

Penelope noticed his prolonged stare and quickly denied what she assumed was in his head. “No, Lucian. You’re not my type. I don’t like good-looking guys. They aren’t trustworthy.” She sighed. “I would be a terrible girlfriend anyway, just like how I’m terrible at everything else.”

“What’s your energy source?”

“Huh?”

“What’s the energy called that your class uses?” Lucian observed Penelope's confusion persist. “Bring up the Master System and go to your ‘Status’ window. On there, look for anything that is talked about like an energy source.”

He watched Penelope’s eyes wiggle as she brought up a screen he couldn’t see. Her doe eyes squinted with concentration before she found the answer.

“I use something called ‘Ki’,” Penelope informed with a furrowed brow.

Lucian pulled out his Monster Guide, flipping through its pages until he landed on a section titled “Classes I Hope For.” It was more of a wish list—a compilation of classes he had aspired to obtain if he ever became an Anointed. He had researched quite a few, only to find that none of them matched what he eventually received.

“You’re a martial arts class that uses Ki. It means every attack you have will be powered by Ki, even normal strikes,” Lucian explained, reading from his book. A martial artist specializing in Ki was also on his wish list. Such a class promised great power once enough strength was gained. “That’s why you aren’t able to hit anything because you aren’t using your class properly. It’s like pushing a car to drive it instead of just turning it on. It’s inefficient.”

Penelope’s head cocked sideways in confusion.

Lucian sighed, “Just summon your energy.” He held up his hand, conjuring Aura. “This is my energy. I use Aura.” The white light radiating from his hand illuminated Penelope’s face. Lucian could also use Mana, but he refrained from showing her both to avoid confusion.

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“How do you even do that…?” Penelope began to ask when her body suddenly began to glow gold, cutting her words short.

“These things come out naturally due to the Master System.”

Penelope wanted to express how invigorated she felt with energy steaming off her body when her attention was abruptly captured by a message appearing from the Master System.

“You have unlocked Skill: [Power Up]!”

[Power Up] – She used the Skill right away.

Her body suddenly burst with power as the Ki streaming off her body transformed into flames that roared like an inferno. Her pupils dilated as a surge of intoxicating strength entered her body, leaving her in awe of how powerful she felt.

Feeling such an overflow of energy, Penelope began to run. She couldn’t explain the impulse; all she knew was that she had to channel the excess energy somehow. Lucian observed her with a satisfied smile on his face.

He said to her, “The Master System isn’t perfect. It lacks one of these,” he held up his Monster Guide, “an instruction manual to explain things better.” Lucian remembered how he was left ignorant in how to even activate the Master System when he first became Anointed. Also, he was still unsure in how to even properly use his class’ most core mechanic, [Beast Mimicry].

The goblin opponent, previously triumphant over Penelope, had awoken. Spotting its familiar adversary, it immediately surged toward her. Penelope, catching a touch of green in her peripheral vision, realized the monster was already in the air, executing its Aura-infused [Goblin Bash].

However, the attack missed as Penelope’s glowing form expertly danced out of harm's way, delivering a perfect counter—a powerful fist across the creature’s chin. The goblin immediately succumbed to unconsciousness. In the next second, as it lay prone on the forest floor, Penelope’s leg descended with an axe kick, heel stomping its round head into a mess of green and red goo.

“Wataaahhh!” Penelope screamed, channeling the spirit of Bruce Lee. She then turned to Lucian, flashing a triumphant thumbs up.

Lucian clapped in applause, and she responded with a bow. Before he could rein her back in, Penelope initiated a series of flips, somersaults, climbing, and jumps from tree to tree.

“I’m like the wind!” Penelope shouted in glee. After a few moments of acrobatic prowess, her Ki suddenly dispersed, and she fell from the air onto her face. “Ow…”

“Oh, yeah,” Lucian said, walking up to her. “The downside to martial arts classes that use Ki constantly is that when they run out, they lose access to all their Skills, and their body becomes slower and weaker.”

“You should’ve told me that before…” Penelope groaned, feeling two streams of blood leaking from her nose.

***

“Penelope?” a voice echoed through the woods.

High upon a moss-covered branch, a chubby man in standard Anointed mercenary armor shouted across the wilderness. He shimmied down like a firefighter, poking his head around every bend and corner, still calling out for Penelope.

It was William, searching for his client. In the Wasted Souls mercenary company, losing a client was frowned upon. Also, deep within, he felt protective of her.

As William stared into the shadows clinging to the parts of the forest growing dim with the fading light, he realized night would soon fall. A mist began to cover most of the ground, creeping ever so slowly to obscure everything from view. A sound of childish laughter rang through the thicket.

“Penelope?” William called out again. Penelope’s voice was mousy, similar to what he had heard.

His eyes widened when he thought he saw a familiar face. A tiny, chubby girl was skipping among the tall trees and stopped to stare at him. A smile with a gap in the middle bloomed on her rosy-cheeked face.

“William,” she called out to him, “I’m going to be like you when I grow up.”

Suddenly, a monstrous creature with scales and a maw capable of swallowing a car devoured her. A burst of blood followed as its teeth clamped down on the tiny body. The creature's red eyes then shifted to William, seeming to gaze beyond him and directly into his soul. However, the creature recognized the boy posed no challenge. Satisfied with its hunger, it slithered away, leaving William shivering in its wake.

William gasped for air as he woke up. “Cynthia!”

“Fuck!” a voice cursed in alarm.

His round head turned to find three sun-dried figures in black insect armor staring at him warily. It was the Wastelanders. Smoke plumes were rising from the semi-circle they stood in.

“Why the fuck did you surprise us waking up like that?” Dougy bellowed, visibly embarrassed that he'd squeaked in fear, resembling a mouse startled by William's sudden awakening. Beside him, Two Tap nervously puffed on a glowing blue glass pipe, while Xavier, sharing Dougy's embarrassment, physically jumped at the unexpected disturbance, adding to his paranoia induced by what they were smoking.

The lingering echoes of the dream haunted William as he tried to make sense of the waking world.

He stared up to see a blanket of stars gazing back at him from the night sky. A moon was there also to greet him. The moon in Monster Gates was one of the telltale signs of being in a gate instead of outside it. It was always completely smooth, unlike the crater-filled moon of the Earth.

The chubby mercenary didn’t realize he had fallen asleep. He stared at his hands, still shivering. The nightmare had been vivid, a haunting replay of the day he lost his little sister.

“Penelope,” he murmured. Worrying over her must’ve dredged up the old nightmares within him. As he turned his attention to the Wastelanders, about to ask if they had made any progress in tracking down Penelope, he noticed the blue glowing glass and smoke.

“Fuck,” he cursed, recognizing what was happening. “Are you guys getting high? Now? We’re in a Monster Gate for fuck’s sake!”

“No place better to get high in,” Xavier responded, his eyes rolled back and his smile unnaturally wide. “Just trying to calm the nerves, fat man.”

Dougy offered the glowing pipe to William.

“No thanks,” William denied with a disgusted look.

“Suit yourself,” Dougy replied with a shrug and brought the pipe to his lips then inhaled deeply.

“Two Tap’s turn,” Two Tap insisted, her eyes glued to the glowing blue glass.

“Calm your tits, sis,” Dougy assuaged, smoke rising from his mouth like an oven with burned food, “You gotta let your big brother visit the fields too.” He inhaled again.

William understood Dougy's reference in saying “visit the fields,” a drug fiend’s saying that alluded to the Elysian Fields, a concept from ancient Greek mythology representing the afterlife. They were smoking Elysium crystal—a notorious substance, renowned for its addictive grip on those who dared to indulge. The name “Elysium” suggested a heavenly experience for the smoker, yet the darker truth lingered: it eventually turned users into living statues. Despite the perilous nature of the substance, William's focused on what Dougy had called Two Tap.

“She’s your sister?” William asked, thumbing toward Two Tap.

“Yea, what of it?” Dougy responded with a wide, drug-induced smile.

“Two Tap hungry,” Two Tap began to say as she puffed on crystal.

“Chill, sis,” Dougy chided, “As soon as we get this New DC cash, we’re getting burgers.”

“Fuck yea,” Xavier enthused, nodding slowly, his eyes lost in a daze.

“You should treat your sister better,” William said as he got up to leave.

“What the fuck?” Xavier snapped with outrage, coming to Dougy’s defense, “What’s with the harsh judgment, man? Walk a mile in my man’s shoes first then see if you can still judge him. Ain’t that right, Dougy?”

Dougy was silent as he watched William give him a disappointed look before departing to search for Penelope again. The Wastelander then stared at Two Tap and sighed.

“Two Tap hungry,” Two Tap said again, scratching her neck where her tulip tattoo resided. The tattoo meant something to her and Dougy both.

The flower somehow allowed Dougy to breach past his drugged up state and say to her in a moment of clarity, “Don’t worry, sis. We’ll get to eat every day after this. I promise you.” His eyes traveled down Two Tap’s armor, knowing that beneath it, she was thin as bones.

“Burgers—A lot of burgers,” Dougy promised before he began to smoke more crystal.