Blake jumped backwards as the Ursa lunged. His boots slid across a rock, and he landed hard on his rear. The monster’s eyes lit up, and it released a celebratory roar.

Without further delay and jaws wide, it lunged to engulf his head. Blake deftly raised his longsword and rested its butt against the ground. The Ursa, unable to arrest its momentum, impaled itself.

Three feet of metal pierced the back of its throat and into its brain. Despite the nano-enhanced steel lodged within it, the beast did not immediately die. The creature knew it had a short window to act and was determined to take him with it.

Blake rolled to the side as its claws raked against his chest.

The jerkin blunted the damage, but the sharp talons parted the toughened hide. His undershirt and skin was parted as the claws scraped against his ribs. He scrambled away and inspected his wound.

It could have been worse.

The jerkin and his evasion had done much to weaken the attack, but the injury still bled profusely. As far as he could tell, its claws did not penetrate his muscles. If he could staunch the bleeding, the injury would not prevent him from completing the scenario. He used his dagger to cut the bottom of his undershirt into strips and then wrapped his chest tightly with the cloth.

While he worked, the beast continued in its death throes.

That was too close.

He reviewed his errors. The fight had soured from the beginning. His first pass failed to disable its limbs. Then, he had miscalculated and placed himself between two trees. That had confined his movement and not allowed him to dodge to the side. When pressed, he had taken the single direction left open to him to evade. That led to his final mistake, not noticing the large rock behind him. Only the skills gained from his many years of combat saved his life.

Blake resolved to do better.

When the monster finally died, he approached the corpse and attempted to retrieve his sword. Unfortunately, the Ursa weighed as much as a car and had fallen atop his weapon. It did not help that the gravity of this world worked against him.

After ten minutes of frustration, where he failed to roll the body on its side despite his superhuman strength, he searched for leverage. He found a long, sturdy branch and then rolled a boulder next to the corpse. With the lever’s help, he was able to pry up the weight. Finally, with access to his weapon once again, he tugged on the sword and extracted it from the beast’s head.

That was way too much effort.

Blake cleaned the grimy blade on the Ursa’s fur, sheathed it, and rested on the ground with his back against the dead monster. He checked his makeshift bandage and noticed only a scant amount of blood from his efforts. He reached into his trouser pockets to retrieve a bottle of water and discovered that it had been crushed in the scuffle.

Damn it! I need that spatial storage!

He reviewed his status and saw that he had accumulated over eleven million nano. It would only cost five million to purchase the general skill, but he wisely delayed the purchase. Even if he gained the skill now, he had no water to add to the storage.

I’ll buy it when I finish the scenario.

Instead of wasting the nano on storage he could not currently use, he enhanced his Physical Power and waited for the nanomachines to finish the upgrade to his muscles. When he checked his map to see his companion’s progress, his eyes lit up with a grin.

Blake hauled himself to his feet and traveled slowly to the question mark Metal placed on his map. When he reached the hidden treasure, he knelt on the forest floor and eagerly scraped away the fallen leaves. His fingers clawed through the rich soil, and swept it to the side.

Finally, when he dug a few inches deep, his nails hit a solid surface. He grasped what looked like a wooden branch, and pried it up with all his strength. The treasure popped loose and caused him to stumble backward.

The reward was revealed.

In his hands was a six-foot-long spear with a metal tip. It was the perfect weapon for eliminating the Ursa, and he could not believe his luck in finding it.

Metal, does the Architect hide the treasures in the scenarios?

I do not know. However, that would be logical to conclude.

Do you think it would place a spear here to help me?

Unknown. I cannot deem myself to know the Architect’s motivations.

Why do I even bother?

Metal’s reluctance to be cordial helped him understand why everyone felt the companions were useless. They had limited knowledge, and had no incentive to provide good advice. If it were not for the wraith’s ability to go invisible and phase through matter, it would be equally useless to him. With a sigh, he glanced at the long weapon once again.

Was it a coincidence?

Blake was not sure if he was being aided by the Architect, or if it was pure luck. He was not even sure if he liked the idea of the Architect noticing him. Either way, the spear would dramatically increase his chances of completing the scenario, despite his injury.

The makeshift bandage was dyed a dark red from his recent excursion, but the wound had finally stopped hemorrhaging. With a Physical Stamina of eleven, the gashes would heal at over twice their normal speed. Unfortunately, that meant he would need to fight while injured for the next week or more.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I really miss my regeneration spell.

Upon reaching level two as a chi warrior, he had gained regeneration. The first level of the ability increased his rate of healing by ten-fold. There was no cooldown to the spell, and he could keep it active for as long as he had chi. That was just the beginning. Blake had upgraded the spell many times until it became far more powerful.

It had been his most useful ability.

Blake rested while he waited for the nanomachines to finish their enhancement. By the time they were done, Metal had mapped everything within the scenario’s boundary and revealed the last three Ursa.

Okay, that’s enough of a break.

He rose to his feet and stalked through the woods, spear in hand, towards the closest enemy. He paused as it came into view.

This time, he changed up his tactics. He placed himself in front of a tree with his spear held close to his chest. When the Ursa charged him, he stood his ground.

At the last second, he shifted, braced the butt of the spear against the tree’s base, bent low, and angled the weapon forward. The metal tip pierced through its chest and became lodged.

It roared, yet still swept its claws toward him. He rolled to the side with a grunt and quickly unsheathed his longsword. The wound was most likely fatal, but it could take days before it collapsed. He did not have that kind of time.

Luckily, the spear remained lodged within the monster and hobbled its movements. Blake now had a Physical Power of fifteen point nine, and he used it to its fullest. He launched constant probes against the Ursa’s limbs, until it became too injured to move. Every time it tried to block or evade his attacks, the spear dug further inside.

Finally, it collapsed to the ground. He grasped the spear and yanked. The removal of his weapon was the last straw, and the light fled from its eyes.

That was so much easier. Now let’s see if I can do it again.

----------------------------------------

The final Ursa slumped to the ground, spear embedded deep in its throat. Its eyes closed, and it lay still. He checked his log, but had yet to receive any nano.

You won’t trick me.

He carefully approached the deadly beast, longsword in hand. When he was only three feet away, it suddenly launched itself forward in an attempt to take him with it to the grave. However, Blake was prepared for the move. He had seen the wily beasts use the tactic far too often in his past to be taken in by the simple trick.

His sword parried the swipe as he dodged nimbly to the side. When the ambush failed, it collapsed to the ground, its energy expended. Moments later, he received a notification.

You have successfully completed the Combat Scenario. Would you like to choose your reward now?

Yes.

Four objects were presented to him by the Architect. He quickly perused the items and chuckled to himself when he saw a spear. That and another pair of trousers were instantly dismissed. In the end, he was left with two actual choices, a pair of bracers and a new leather jerkin.

He chose the bracers.

While his chest armor was damaged, it still provided a defense. His arms, however, were unprotected. The nano-enhanced hide was not hardy enough to completely block an Ursa’s strike, but it was enough to weaken the attack and possibly save his life.

While he waited for his bracers to be constructed, he checked his status. He collected a little under nine million nano. It was too little to enhance an attribute, but was more than enough to learn a general skill.

I might as well.

The lack of water bothered him. Luckily, he had been able to finish the Ursa in good time. However, if not for his companion’s ability to scout the enemy and find the spear, he might have died of dehydration. There was no source of water within the scenario boundary, and without aid, he could have been stuck here for days.

Before he could second guess his decision, he invested the five million nano into the spatial storage ability. Once he did, a notification immediately greeted him.

You have gained 2,500k nano for completing a directive.

That much?

Blake spent five million nano to purchase the skill and received two and a half million back from the reward for doing so. He had momentarily forgotten that his achievement doubled his reward for completing a directive. It was far more than he expected, and he checked his list of directives to see what he could complete next.

Directives -

* Join or create a faction.

* Complete 10 Combat Scenarios.

* Enhance attributes 12 times.

* Purchase a Combat Classification.

* Upgrade a skill.

He had completed his seventh scenario, and upgraded his attributes seven times. After three more scenarios, he would complete another directive, which would award him a large amount of nano. Depending on the size of the reward, it would only take one or two more scenarios before he completed the next directive and enhanced an attribute twelve times.

He mentally completed the calculation. If he was lucky, it would only be three more days before he maxed out his attributes and could collect nano for his faction. Another three and the Mega-bowl would take place.

The payout he would receive from the bet would go a long way towards starting the faction and allow him to skip many of the first steps. They could hire workers to cut down trees, create lumber, and collect other resources. While money would become worthless on Invasion day, it would be invaluable in establishing his faction town.

Time to get some sleep.

Once the bracers were fully fabricated, he donned them, and made his way back to the portal.

When he arrived back on Earth, it was already dark. But, with the aid of a flashlight, he was able to rummage through his supplies within the tower. He quickly drained a full bottle of water dry before he cooked supper.

When his meal was finished, he held a new plastic bottle in his hand and focused on his new skill.

Store.

Before his very eyes, the container of water began to disappear. It took two minutes for the object to fully disassemble, but he felt better knowing that he had a backup, ready to use. Once it was disassembled, he checked how much mass was used.

One point one pounds. Nice!

The ability allowed him to store a little over two point three, so he stored another full bottle. Two minutes later, the skill reached its mass limit. He checked the skill’s progress meter and saw that he was two percent of the way towards mastery of it.

He smiled.

Every time he stored or retrieved an object, he would become slightly more experienced at using the skill. When the progress reached one hundred percent, he would be allowed to spend more nano and upgrade it. The upgrade would not only double the mass he could store, but would increase the speed of assembly.

Unfortunately, that would not be possible until he purchased a combat class. By the time he gathered enough nano to form a faction and purchase his class, his skill would be maxed out, even from casual use.

Until he leveled and upgraded the skill a few more times, it held limited use. It took just as long to retrieve something as it took to store it, so it was not very useful in combat. However, having water always available to him could potentially save his life.

Blake yawned and slipped into bed. It had been a long day and he was tired.