Michael’s mouth dropped to the floor when he finally studied the ranking list. About half of the top 100 contenders were already tier 2. Michael could only hope that they were the fools grabbing the basic tier upgrade method. The way they were interspaced throughout the top 100, meant it was certainly possible. Even if they were fools, being able to move past the threshold, would mean they would hit points where it was difficult for tier 1’s to compare. However, the top tier 1 was ranked 14th on the list, proving that rank was not everything. However, knowing that Sarge was maxed out at tier 1 and he was only ranked 259, meant that the top two to three hundred contenders even surpassed him.

Then Michael saw it. He cursed and dismissed the interface. The number 191 spot was held by Chad Suerve. How could that prick be in the top 200? Did his family bribe the battle manager or something? Michael knew it was a ridiculous thought. The Suerve family might be a dominant entity where he was from, but in the wider world most would not consider them any better than Michael’s own family.

“What happened,” Kyrie asked sleepily.

“Oh nothing, this asshole I know is ranked 191. He’s a real ass, prolly killing other contenders to advance,” Michael muttered, disgusted.

“Alright, just give me a minute. Then we can head out,” Kyrie said, yawning.

Michael watched as she stepped out of the office they had bedded down in for the night. Last night they had rampaged for several hours. They wanted to put as much distance between themselves and the hundreds of contenders that would be leaving the downtown outpost this morning. Another couple hours this morning and they would pass into the riverside district.

Michael had netted another 2 attribute points last night which he added to dexterity. Smoother and quicker reactions were in order. It was the area he felt would benefit him the most now that he was wielding a machete, speed and grace.

“Much better,” Kyrie said, reappearing. “So what makes this guy such an asshole?”

“Just rich and controlling. You know the ‘cross me and my family will make sure your dad gets fired from his job, and your landlord will throw you out on the street’ type of guy.

“Hmmm…that's rough. While I would not say there are not people like that from where I’m from. I guess I would say it's a bit more subtle.”

“And where is that again,” Michael asked.

“Magnum,” the girl replied proudly.

“I should have known,’ Michael stated shaking his head. The home worlds in Magnum were known for being free spirited and independent. This girl was traipsing around with red streaks in her black hair for goodness sake, and from what Michael had gleaned based on the few comments or conversations that they had about the outside world, he could tell her home circumstances were not near as bad as most of the people he knew. Eating meat was seemingly not even a noteworthy occasion for her.

Michael was woken from his thoughts, when a group of fifteen zombies all shifted their gazes to the pair as they exited the stairwell. The next moment all of them were sprinting toward them.

[Office worker zombie tier 1x 8; tier 0x7]

It was the first time that Michael had seen a group where tier 1’s outnumbered the tier 0’s. It was still not a problem for the two of them. However, at least a couple of the tier 1’s were several steps stronger and faster than the others of the same tier.

Michael started with an amber dart toward one of the faster ones. Its head exploded, but he was already swinging the machete at the next one. Kyrie moved forward into her own space, whipping the katana through multiple zombies. Who fell behind her. The fight ended in less than half a minute, a nice little warm up. Michael was left grimacing when Kyrie smirked as she collected the one white drop that had fallen during the fight. Not that he could really hold it against her, she was definitely due a good turn. He had gotten several more than her yesterday.

The tougher groups of zombies continued after they left the office building. They emerged at first light, meaning much of the surface was still in shadow as sunlight flickered through all the skyscrapers. Almost immediately, they ran into a group of 22 zombies, and the sounds of battle drew several more groups. All low level tier 1’s and 0’s, but endless numbers presented their own problems. Michael was a touch too slow on one step allowing a zombie's outstretched fingers rake across his back. Another downed zombie grabbed onto his leg, putting him in a very precarious position for a couple moments before he was able to rip free from the zombies grasp.

After taking care of a couple other zombies, Michael was slightly surprised by the offender. A section of the zombie’s head had already been removed. A neat line crossed the top left side of the zombie’s head, but Michael could only assume that the wound had only included the scalp and the skull without damaging the brain enough to kill the thing.

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The battle ended in about 4 minutes leaving them both huffing in exertion. It had been a quick battle, but both their stamina's had dropped fairly significantly. Michael had only used quickened step a couple of times, but his SP was already in the 30’s.

But the battle had delivered some rewards. Michael smirked as he grabbed a white drop. That was on top of his crowns going up by 16. Kyrie smirked back at Michael. She showed him her log.

“Damnit,” Michael cursed. The girl had not only gotten a white drop, but one of the far rarer amber drops.

Kyrie chuckled. “I think I will raise my spirit to 2 with this guy,” she said smugly.

“Have you even found a way to use your spirit energy yet?” Michael asked sarcastically.

Kyrie smirked. “Of course, It might not be the most efficient use of it, but I can make a field around myself to increase my awareness. It took a bit to get used to, but now I can see attacks or enemies coming from all directions.”

“You’re right. That does sound incredibly inefficient,” Michael stated. She glared at him. “Well I’m not saying that it isn’t useful, but you can’t do it for long.”

“I’ve leveled up my control, so I can get a good 10 seconds per a point.”

“That’s like a minute and a half,” Michael chuckled.

“Sure, but I can alternate it on and off. Not to mention it takes only 45 seconds to refresh a point.”

“45 seconds? It takes me a full minute to get one point back in pulse. Is spirit energy different?”

“Maybe it is because I am more suited to spirit energy than you are to pulse,” Kyrie smirked.

“Nah, I don’t think that is it,” Michael smiled.

‘Heeeyyy.’ Kyrie protested.

“Don’t worry. If it is not some sort of predisposition to certain things then I have two guesses. Either spirit energy and pulse are different, or the more likely option is that it is based on attributes.``

“That does not make much sense. There are not any attributes that have anything to do with mental abilities,” Kyrie stated.

“Just let me know if you notice a difference when you increase one of your stats. Lets keep going, I’ve recovered most of my SP,” Michael said finally.

They did not travel too much further before they ran into another group of zombies, but this time other groups were not close enough to get pulled into combat. They both only got some crowns for their trouble. However before either of them could feel too disappointed they noticed it.

“Michael, you see it?” Kyrie shared her tactical screen.

“Yeah,” Michael replied. Kyrie’s tactical map showed the large skyscraper in front of them under a blue haze. “If we have to clear that whole thing, it could take all day.” Michaels gaze swept up. “There must be 40 stories.”

“Well even if it does take all day, it is a guaranteed reward. Not to mention it is as good a place to grind as any other,” Kyrie said, swinging her katana and stopping abruptly. The grime continued forward, leaving her sword mostly clean.

The pair entered the office tower, without another word. A quick courtesy check showed that below the building was a parking garage. It did not share the building's blue haze, so they concluded that the drop would be on the upper floors. Likely all the way up at the top. However they decided to go floor by floor. There seemed to only be one stairwell on each side of the building. While it led all the way up to the top, the last thing they needed were 49 floors worth of zombies to charge up the stairs after them.

The bottom floor had been empty of enemies, but the zombies hit them full force on the first floor. Thirty tier 1 and tier 0 zombies that swarmed them in one mass. They easily cleared them out and searched the floor. Then it was up to the second floor. It was not quite noticeable on the second floor, but after the third and fourth it had become clear. There were more zombies on each successive floor. By the tenth, it was clear that it was not just the numbers that were increasing, but the average strength was following suit. Tier 0’s only made up a fifth of the zombies on the tenth floor. They finished floor fifteen before they decided to stop for breakfast.

“Do you think we will even be able to clear the top,” Kyrie asked. She was genuinely worried. Floor fifteen had only a handful of tier 0’s and there were fifty zombies. They did not necessarily fight them all at once. The floors also sometimes had them separated into smaller groups. As long as they cleared a group quickly enough, they could have a short breather before the next group came attracted to the noise.

“Hard to say. Another couple floors and we likely won’t see any more tier 0’s. Once we hit that point the opponents will only have one way to get more difficult,” Michael theorized.

“More powerful tier 1’s,” Kyrie agreed solemnly. Her smile returned. “Still you can’t say that this morning has not been profitable.”

It certainly had been profitable. Michael had grabbed four more white drops, and Kyrie had gotten five. If today kept going like this, Mark would break his record for most new attribute points in a day. His record was 10, and he was already halfway there. That didn't even take into account how many crowns that Michael and Kyrie had picked up. Michael was already back past 200, and it was only 0900. Suddenly the several thousand crown items for sale at the outpost were not so far out of reach. Still if the tier 1’s started getting stronger things could get quite difficult.

“We can take it one floor at a time,” Michael concluded finally. Kyrie nodded in agreement. Neither of them was ready to give up the easy hunting grounds they had stumbled into. “Lets just throw some more points into endurance, just to be safe.”

Michael had brought his dexterity up to 25, and then started raising his agility since he started lagging behind with his perception again. His agility was now at 18. He would like to continue to bring agility and dexterity up, but endurance was a legitimate concern. His bracer still had all of the bolts, so in a pinch he should be able to extricate himself from one bad situation or two.

On floor seventeen, the two of them received quite the surprise. A green drop had appeared. Kyrie smiled as she swept her arm through the green blur. Michael could only curse the fact that her luck was continuing to be better today. He pulled up his own interface to check how many crowns he was at, 226. He had surpassed how much he had after the entire first week. Kyrie’s wide smile shifted to a neutral expression.

“What's wrong, did not get what you expected,” Michael smirked.

“A regular equipment upgrade,” Kyrie remarked. She held up her katana. A flash of blue enveloped the blade. “It made it good quality,” Kyrie narrated unenthusiastically.

“Well, that's not terrible. It will self repair, now…” Michael offered.

“Lets keep going,” Kyrie stated, headed for the nearest stairwell. She was clearly still disappointed.