Austin had already settled on the car he wanted beforehand, so all of the salesman’s attempts to get him to upgrade to a later model were in vain.
“But sir, we have so many amazing deals on later models. Would you like to take one for a test drive?”
“No thanks. I’m good.” Austin said.
The salesman looked disappointed for a moment before reverting to a cheery disposition. He took Austin inside a small cubicle where they worked out all of the financial details and paperwork.
In the end, Austin had decided on a rather tame car. It was a black two door sedan from a few years ago. He didn’t need the latest technology, just a car that drove.
It cost him $8,000, but the salesman was awestruck when Austin turned down a payment plan and bought the car upfront.
“You’re-You’re a Crawler!” The salesman uttered in surprise when he confirmed Austin’s source of income. He then began cursing himself for not trying harder to sell him on a more expensive model.
Austin drove off of the lot and back home where he excitedly showed his latest purchase to Mrs. Green, his only real confidant.
She congratulated him, and inwardly remarked on just how much the boy had changed, before Austin went back upstairs to his apartment and opened his laptop.
He began searching for an open dungeon under 2-Stars to take Shelby through. Austin figured that he could keep her safe without using his Avatar if it was a low level one.
He found one where no teams had registered yet, and pulled out his phone. He typed Shelby’s number in and sent a text.
“Hey, it’s the guy from your dad’s diner. I found a dungeon that I could take you through tomorrow. You down?”
It was the middle of the day, so he wasn’t expecting anything but he received a response almost immediately.
“OMG. I didn’t think you would text me back. Idk how useful I can be, but if someone as strong as you is there I'm sure I’ll be fine lol.”
“Great. Send me your Crawler ID so I can register us for the door. I’ll come by the diner tomorrow at noon to grab you. Sounds good?”
“Yes!”
Austin smiled. He spent most of his younger years wishing someone would give him an opportunity to become a real Crawler, but due to his low starting stats he never got that chance. Even though Shelby must’ve had incredible stats to be put at 2-Star by level 7, Austin was still glad to be offering someone that same opportunity he had craved.
After receiving her information and registering them for the dungeon, Austin laid down on his bed and began browsing on his phone when an interesting article caught his eye.
“MYSTERIOUS MASKED MAN DEALS WITH DUNGEON BREAK AND STUNS PRESS”
The picture accompanying the headline was, of course, Austin flying over the heads of the gathered reporters that he had run into after dealing with the break for Young.
“Man, I look kinda cool in the mask and cloak…”
There were actually a few articles about him, some of them wondering if he was a new Crawler or an old one who decided to reinvent themselves, others wondering if he had a party, and even more wondering if he worked for the Association.
All of the articles, however, included one thing in common. There was a statement from the association that had been given in response to any inquiries about him.
“We do not know the identity of Savior, and while he has been a large help to us resolving break incidents he is not under the Association’s direct control. He is simply an anonymous Crawler working for the good of society.”
At this very moment, Austin was extremely glad he had decided to go with the mask, as if it were his face and name plastered everywhere instead of “Savior,” he might just die of embarrassment.
“Mental note, thank Young for keeping his promise not to reveal me.”
After reading all of the articles about himself, Austin wasted time in other ways. He played games on his phone, read a couple of chapters of a few web novels, and brushed up on the Association’s Bestiary, which he had already read a few dozen times.
After a couple of hours passed, his phone rang. As he went to answer it, the number he had saved under “Pizza” flashed across the screen.
He answered it with an immediate “Where’s the break?”
On the other side of the phone, Young responded “How do you know I wasn’t calling because I wanted a nice chat.”
Austin chuckled and retorted, “You don’t seem the type for ‘nice chats’”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Young muttered something that Austin didn’t quite hear before continuing. “There’s a break, 4-Star, I’ll send the address now.”
“Why are so many breaks happening all of the sudden? I usually only hear of two or three per week…” Austin asked.
“Exactly,” Young began, “You only hear of two or three because we take care of the rest of them.”
Austin didn’t know what to say in response to that, so he just said “Leave it to me.” and grabbed the keys to his new car.
He drove for about ten minutes until he was a block away from where the break was happening. He parked his car and made sure no people were around before activating his ability.
After he was powered up, Austin jumped onto a nearby roof and began heading towards the incident.
“I've been traveling by roof a whole lot recently. Never thought I’d be able to do something like this…”
He arrived outside of the cordoned off area and dropped down next to an extremely surprised Association Employee.
“I’m here.” Austin said.
“We-um, knew you were coming. We’ve kept it contained, but if they made a serious push we’d probably be overwhelmed. We’re ready to follow you in as soon as possible.”
Austin looked confused, but that really didn’t show through the mask.
“No, you guys stay out here. I’ve got this.”
He sounded very cocky, but in actuality, he just wanted all of the XP to himself.
The employee looked dumbfounded, and stepped aside to allow Austin to pass through. As he did so, the area was suddenly bathed by the flash of a camera.
A reporter had snuck through the cordoned off area and was now taking pictures of Austin as he entered alone. He ignored her and walked in.
“Crap, I was so caught up in my act that I didn’t ask what kind of monsters I was dealing with.”
Austin began to panic a bit, but he quickly calmed himself. Young had told him it was a 4-Star break, which narrowed down the possibilities. In all likelihood, he would be fighting a group around the strength of the ice bear boss he had taken down previously.
As he got closer to the center of the area, he felt the ground shake below his feet, and his opponents soon came into view.
“Ogres…”
Austin immediately activated Warrior’s Sense to get a read on his opponents.
There were four of them in total, and one of them was a full head taller than the others. Other than the one taller one, however, they all looked identical. Green, ugly bastards standing at around 10 feet tall. The big one was definitely at least 12 feet though.
Ogre: Level 43
Ogre Warlord (BOSS): Level 48
Austin calmed himself down. “Even in my unpowered form, I still outlevel them. I’ll be fine.”
He decided on his plan of attack when he noticed something. The Ogre boss was holding a glittering steel claymore about as tall as Austin was.
“I want that sword…” He had never been one for shields, and right now his right hand was just going to waste since he was wielding his longsword one handed. With that claymore, Austin felt he could do some serious damage.
He activated Sprint and charged for the Warlord first.
Once he got in range, he activated both Hero’s Slash and Condem as well and aimed a strike for the throat of the ugly thing.
Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up!
One slash and it was done. The boss’s head landed a few feet from where it crumpled to the ground. It didn’t even have a chance to react to Austin’s lightning fast approach.
With that taken care of, he attacked the other three Ogres head on.
As one of them swung its club at him, he dodged backwards. Then, springing forwards, he used the club as a ramp and ran up it. Launching himself off of the Ogre’s head, he drove his sword hard into the next one, killing it instantly.
Not wasting his forward momentum, he plowed through the now dead Ogre and sent its body crashing into the one that hadn’t acted yet.
Stunning it momentarily, Austin used that opportunity to execute a well placed slash to its neck.
With one Ogre remaining, Austin turned and hurled his sword like a spear, landing it square in the final enemy’s forehead.
Level Up!
With all of the ogres rather anticlimactically disposed of, Austin casually walked over to where the Warlord’s body lay and grabbed the steel sword.
Steel Claymore:
A well made sword designed to be used with two hands to deliver devastating blows to enemies.
Damage: 45
“Wow!” Austin exclaimed, “It’s way better than my current sword!”
He decided to just leave the iron longsword embedded in the Ogre’s forehead, and picked up the claymore. Strapping the scabbard that he took from the Ogre’s waist to his back, he sheathed the blade. It wasn’t nearly as heavy as he expected, but maybe he was just that strong. It didn’t really matter.
He made his way back to the entrance and greeted a stunned employee.
“Where are the Ogres!?”
Austin responded with bravado. “Laying dead on the ground where they belong.”
He turned and saw a crowd of reporters that had pushed through the barricade and were now filming and taking pictures of him.
“Guess they heard Savior was here and wanted a scoop.”
Austin nonchalantly waved at them before immediately taking off. He really didn’t want to answer any questions.
He also assumed just like before that Young would have the crystals taken care of and pay him whatever he was owed. Not that Austin particularly cared about the money anyways.
He made his way back to his car before releasing the Avatar, climbing inside, and driving home.
On the way home he got a call from Young, who simply said “Good job.” Before ending the connection.
Austin arrived at home, set his alarm, and went to sleep. Running across all of those rooves was actually quite tiring. He had to give credit to all those parkour guys he saw on the internet, most of them didn’t even have any powers.
With anticipation towards his next raid tomorrow, Austin fell into a deep, restful sleep.