The taller one covered his face in a blue bandana and moved to the right wall, jumping on top of the tunnel.

“Ok, I realize that the tunnels were easily countered, but come on,” Rick grumbled, eliciting a laugh from Billy.

Billy aimed and fired a couple of rounds at the slob and shouted, “Stella, go left! Finn, go right!” The wolves split up, taking tunnels on opposite sides of the room.

“Stella, huh? I like that” Rick said and turned his attention to the athletic guy with the leaf blower. Even with his new Resource Burn skill, he still didn’t waste precious Energy on identifying these Challengers.

“Yeah, that’s definitely gas-powered. Billy, try not to shoot his weapon. I want the liquid inside of it,” Rick said, feeling slightly silly for calling a leaf blower a ‘weapon’. Billy nodded, glancing at the athletic one while waiting for an opening on the slob.

The slob with the stall door shuffled over to one of the entrances of the tunnel Stella ran in. He knelt down, still covered by his door, and let out an enormous belch. A green gas erupted from his lungs and mouth, filling the small tunnel.

If Rick had arms to throw up in disgust, he would, “Oh, come on. I worked hard on these tunnels.”

Stella began running through the green gas. After three steps, she fell face forward and skidded to a stop, dead.

Finn saw her fall through the glass tunnels and snarled. He took the next exit and made a beeline toward the slob. The man smiled briefly and belched in Finn’s direction. The disturbing sound and gas didn’t let up. An enormous cloud began to billow, but the prolonged attack gave Billy his opening. Jumping from behind the glass, he ran forwards and began firing.

The slob couldn’t adjust his stall shield in time. Magic bullets went through his fat gut, releasing more of the gas. Billy saw it drifting out and adjusted his aim. He wasted a couple of rounds but managed to hit the guy in the head, killing him. Gas still kept pouring from the dead man’s wounds and mouth.

Finn had inhaled a small amount of the gas and changed direction away from the gas. That amount was enough to kill Stella, but Finn was stronger at the moment. This is when it dawned on Rick what the leaf blower was for.

The leaf blower roared to life, driving the drifting gas away from the athletic Challenger. He began making a circular motion with the leaf blower, funneling the gas toward Billy. The gas quickly reached where Billy was.

“Hold your breath!” Rick shouted.

It was easy to see that Billy followed the advice as his face became a little more red. He moved between the panels, getting closer while reloading.

Finn had wheeled back around, forcing the man to turn and kick at the wolf. Billy finished his reload and fired at the man’s legs, trying to avoid blowing up the leaf blower. The man’s legs turned into Swiss cheese as Billy continued to unload his pistols.

Rick patiently waited to absorb the gasoline as the man fell face first into the hard stone floor. Finn crept up, licking his lips for an easy kill. Billy, still holding his breath ran as fast as he could out of the cloud of gas and took a deep breath.

A strange energy began to emit from the man, making Rick a bit uneasy, “Hey, Bi–”.

Before he could get a warning off, the wounds on the man’s legs began to rapidly close shut. Before Billy or Finn could react, the man jumped to his feet, shrugged off the leaf blower, and sprinted to the dungeon entrance faster than even Finn could move.

“Damn, I wonder what skill that was,” Rick said to Billy whose jaw was hanging open.

“Yeah, if he comes back, I want that skill,” Billy’s voice dripped with jealousy.

“Well, I imagine he’ll come back with more than a leafblower next time. Speaking of which, he was kind enough to leave it here for us. So, success! Right?” Rick said cheerily. Then he felt the alert from the leaderboard updating.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Leaderboard

1: Chris Carpenter

2: Deandre Booker

“Weird. How is he not in first place? He survived,” Rick asked Billy.

Billy shrugged, “He didn’t do much either. His partner was the only one that did any damage, but that self healing display and speed were impressive. Maybe those skills don’t last for long and he saves it for an emergency.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. Also, thanks for avoiding the leaf blower.”

“No problem, but I wish to blow him up next time,” Billy said with a smile.

Rick chuckled, “You’re twisted, Bill. You talk funny and you’re twisted.”

Billy’s brow furrowed as he walked towards Finn grumbling, “My speech is without flaw, dungeon.”

Rick didn’t need to sigh without lungs, but he did it anyway and greedily absorbed the slob to get the smell out of the room as quickly as possible. Everything the man owned from the stall door to the stained clothing was worthless junk that Rick happily burned for more Energy. The one thing that was interesting was the skill that he absorbed with the slob.

Noxious Essence (Level 4): Your very essence is made up of Poison. Any food or drink consumed is broken down into poison and refined throughout your body. Your natural body temperature will heat the refined poison into a noxious gas. Gas can be expelled from the body in any preferred method.

This was the first person Rick was genuinely glad he had killed. That thought made him a bit uneasy. Sure, the man was repulsive and had a dangerous skill, but should he feel happiness over ending him? Adam’s words about staying true to himself and not becoming a monster rang through his head. He decided to talk to Jimmy later and hopefully either get some validation or a mental check.

Shaking those thoughts away, Rick absorbed his prized possession. An Echo 220 mph Gas 2-Stroke X Series Backpack Blower with Tube-Mounted Throttle. Rick actually didn’t give two shits about the leaf blower, but that information was absorbed into him and burned into his registry forever. What he was excited about was the precious gasoline he absorbed.

Jimmy walked in with a patch of grass he must have cut out from the park. He laid it down, wiping sweat off of his forehead, and watched it get absorbed immediately. “So, what did you do to that guy? I’ve never seen someone run so fast in my life. My hamstrings hurt just watching him.”

“Billy and Finn almost got him. Killed his friend. You know, business as usual.” Rick briefly appreciated the taste and smell of the grass patch he absorbed, “Thanks for the grass, Jimmy. This is better than Christmas morning. Guess what else we have now?”

Raising an eyebrow, Jimmy said, “A penthouse with a huge bed, built-in hot tub with six speeds, and a pound of cocaine?”

“Even better. Gasoline!” Rick said excitedly.

Jimmy’s eyes went wide, “That’s great, Rick. I actually did think about that. But, Kara said the oil companies are more powerful than ever. And worse, if you can imagine that. There are some bad rumors out there, but I don’t want to step on their toes.”

“Damnit,” Rick snapped. “Well, we can still use it, right? Especially if we are hiring people, we can use them for generators, company cars, you name it.”

A smile crept up on Jimmy’s face, “True. I’ll see if Kara can buy some empty barrels with one of the oil company's logos on them, forge some invoices of us ordering them in case anyone sniffs around, then use it for ourselves. Could even sell it underground,” Jimmy said with the familiar greedy glint in his eye.

Rick was on board as well, “Yup. I plan on making some old fashioned traps in this place too. You bring any trash with you?”

“Yeah, there are a few bags outside. I’ll bring ‘em in.”

Jimmy began tossing in black trash bags full of junk that Rick greedily burned with his skill. As his Energy spiked up with each bag of trash, he began covering the ground of the dungeon with grass. He found that he could even will the floor to move up or down to make a small hill or ditch.

The trash itself had a couple of useful items that Rick nearly burned. Even though nobody would dare to eat the food that was mixed in, Rick was still able to absorb it and add it to his directory. When he produced it, it would be fresh and as he wanted it. Thankfully, there was a bit of dog food mixed in with one of the bags which he promptly gave to Penny.

The floor already looked entirely different. Now it had a few small hills scattered about. It almost looked silly since the floor was still pretty small, but now that he had an idea of how he wanted it to look, it would be easier to dedicate a lot of his Energy to Spatial Expansion.

“Jimmy, I need a lot more trash. If there’s anyone out there waiting, tell them we’ll pay them in gold for bringing as much trash as possible for the rest of the week.”

Jimmy faithfully hopped up and went outside to sell the job. As he opened the door, a lone female figure was waiting. “Oh, Kara! Come in. I’m sure Rick wants to meet you, even if you can’t hear him.”