“Are you sure about this?” Hakeem was nervous as he stood at the far end corner of the dead-end alleyway. Two tall buildings were on his sides and on his back was a solid wall. The width of the dead-end alleyway measured seven feet and it wasn’t enough room to maneuver when right in front of him stood a three-meter beast revving to charge at him.

A lone Bumi Bison stood at the only exit of the alleyway. It was enraged and fuming as one of its forefeet pawing the road. It didn’t come here without reason as it was nonetheless provoked by someone.

Jason appeared behind Hakeem as he tapped Hakeem’s shoulder for motivation.

“Don’t worry, you’ve got Iron Body,” he said as the thought of seeing this happening made him grin.

“Dude, you said that this bull is like twice my level,” Hakeem couldn’t hide his nervousness as beads of sweats rained over his forehead.

“Relax, I’m here and I’ll be healing you in no time. Just don’t die,” said Jason.

Hearing the word die only elevated Hakeem’s nervousness. The trio had been fighting against monsters along the way and now they were very close to the city center. Both of them who were being carried by their friend and brother couldn’t handle anymore the ongoing motion sickness they felt in the shadow realm.

Esther took the full brunt and was resting in an apartment building just beside this narrow alleyway. While she was resting, Jason had another plan for Hakeem and now there they were with their backs behind a wall. Hakeem was level fifteen but his skill level remained stagnant as he barely did anything. Thus the reason why Jason came up with this plan.

A plan to fully developed Hakeem as a truly impenetrable tanker. He didn’t pick the role for Hakeem but he was the one who insisted as such. Jason wandered around the city and found a suitable training partner for his friend and the Bumi Bison volunteered willingly as Jason kept on aggro the dumb beast right until here, a one-way lane for the pent-up Bumi Bison to released its aggro.

“Buckle up, here it comes,” said Jason as he disappeared into nothingness as Hakeem braced himself from the incoming attack.

The tactical shield that he had was no longer there as it turned into scrap metal turning unusable. The only thing he could rely on right now was his pure Iron Body and his trusty iron mace.

He stared at the raging bull and kept his eyes open without blinking. Then they collided. Hakeem lowered his center of gravity trying to endure the head smash by the Bumi Bison but alas he was too weak and too under level. The blue windows kept on shoving on his face detailing his Iron Body points reaching a critical level.

“Jason!” Hakeem shouted out of desperation.

A growing green glow enveloped his entire body as his Iron Body points restored to normal. But that didn’t last well as the Bumi Bison was rough and aggressive like a true-born rodeo bull, it kept charging at the only human it could found and released its instinct of hurting the inhabitant of this world.

Hakeem endured the great force pummeling over his body, his Iron Body points kept on rising and decreasing like it was a see-saw. Jason who kept coming in and out of hiding while healing this man couldn’t help but cheer with glee, just a while ago, his Minor Heal+ had reached the maximum level.

Minor Heal+ has reached the maximum level

Upgrade into Heal Lv.1

Minor Heal+ was his first skill as he had given the choice to choose it. It was at a dire moment and he had no choice but choose it out of circumstances. But it did wonders for him as it became one of his essential skills. With the upgrade to Heal his recovery ability had improved tremendously. Even the fluctuating Iron Body points of Hakeem started to at least fluctuate in a stable manner. At least his friend wouldn’t be in a risky position of suddenly breaking his only defensive wall and not be skewed by those sharp horns.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

While the man hiding behind the shield was having fun of his time, Hakeem wasn’t in a good situation. He couldn’t anything against this bovine monster as he kept on being attacked by it without stopping. The raging bull kept head bashing on his torso rendering him to only kept his arms up to defend his body. Hakeem had no way of retaliating back, it made him similar to a punching bag. He couldn’t even stop for a while and take a breather as this Bumi Bison was relentless.

He even hoped that Jason would help and killed this beast but his friend didn’t do anything but kept on healing Hakeem up. Hakeem was at the verge of giving up, even the harsh training he endured back when he was a basketball athlete wasn’t this hard. But his hardship didn’t come without reward, in a blink of an eye his Iron Body had already leveled up to level four bringing him more defensive capability as well heightening his strength a bit. He could felt it immediately but the Bumi Bison was still way too strong for him.

Two hours went by and our tall black friend couldn’t endure this masochistic training any longer.

“Dude… let me… rest… a… bit…” Hakeem was reaching his limit. Jason wanted to push his friend a bit further since his own Heal skill had reached level five. The more he could spam it, the better it was for his own healing skill. But being the good guy and a good friend he helped out his friend in need.

He disappeared into nothingness and appeared right above the oblivious Bumi Bison. The bovine was still torturing the poor soul but its time was near. The sheen of Jason’s dirk was glowing in dark crimson red thirsting for blood. His eyes couldn’t glance away from its neck and with a swift motion of his arm, he unleashed Blood Edge Strike.

A clean-cut as he beheaded the bison’s head. The head rolled on the ground stopping right in front of Hakeem. He’s too strong, thought Hakeem. He thought he was getting strong but this man showed him something else.

“Come on, let’s get back to the apartment. I think a shower would be nice,” said Jason.

The two returned back to the abandoned apartment. Well, every house in this city was abandoned so they just chose the best apartment of the bunch within this particular building. The moment they entered, they saw Esther loitering around the apartment with a bottle of water in her hand.

“I’ve been watching, am I going to do the same thing?” said Esther as he saw the pathetic state Hakeem went through.

It was definitely not her cup of tea. But lucky for her, her brother had something else in mind.

“Nah, you’re a bit different,” said Jason as he watched the back of Hakeem dropping on the nearby couch. The man was in need of rest no matter how many levels his Iron Body went up.

“Come here,” Jason said prompting Esther to come over. Yet as the distance between them reached a foot, Esther was stunned seeing Jason taking out a gun. It was too fast and even with her agility she couldn’t dodge it within this distance, her brother pulled the trigger and a bullet went straight at her torso. She flung back and dropped on the floor.

Hakeem who was about to rest woke up immediately with alert looking eyes.

“What happened?” Hakeem said as he saw the gun held by Jason.

Esther was dumbfounded as she laid there on the floor not knowing what just happened. She was speechless and frozen in place not knowing what else to feel. There was a sudden strong force pushing through her abdomen but that was all. There was no pain whatsoever but being shot by a gun was frightening.

A blue window popped up as her energy guard went up to level two but that didn’t make her happy. She propped her body up and glared at this dick brother of hers.

“You shot me? Are you crazy?!” shouted Esther as this time she was definitely angered by Jason’s action. Although she knew that she would be shot by a firearm after Jason picked up the SMG but his sudden action of shooting her when she was unprepared caught her by surprise and she couldn’t help but be angered by it.

“What? Dude, that’s too much,” Hakeem was siding with Esther.

“Don’t get workup, your energy guard went up by a level didn’t it?” said Jason as he paid no mind to the anger behind Ester’s eyes.

“But you could have…” Jason cut her off as it was pointless to argue about this matter.

“You’re the one who told me to help you get strong so I just did it,” Jason said. “Now at least you know, you won’t be hurt by a bullet.”

“But what if something wrong? You’re going to take responsibility?” Esther asked.

“Of course, if a bullet went through I can just heal you,” said Jason.

Esther was getting angrier by the second, every question she threw at him there would always be an answer.

“But what if your skill can’t heal me?” she asked.

“Nonsense, I once healed myself after being shot a few times on my body and as you can see for yourself I’m still alive,” said Jason.

His thoughtless remark left Hakeem and Esther to ponder. Jason had been shot numerous times? But when?

Then the thought of Jason being in New York City came into mind in both of their heads. The sudden realization just hit them.

Esther fell silent not knowing what to say. She was still mad at him but hearing his sudden circumstances made her a bit careful.

“But you can’t just shoot me like that? You should at least tell me beforehand,” she tried to fight back in a milder way.

The situation dialed down a bit but Esther was not giving up in reprimanding her brother.

“In war, did you think some soldier would tell you first before they shoot? Sounds stupid isn’t it, but there it is, I’m just preparing you for the worst and although I’m being a dick about it but hey, at least you will still be alive when other people will be dying because of some stray bullets or being eaten by monsters,” said Jason.

Esther couldn’t say anything else. She turned around and left the living room going into one of the bedrooms.

Hakeem shook his head as he didn’t want to get involved in this brother-sister squabble. He lay back on the couch resting his head against the soft pillow, it was time for him to rest a bit from all the madness he just went through.

Jason was the calmest and nonchalant in this case as he went into one of the bedrooms and took a shower, cleaning his body up from the sweat and grime.

Dawn was approaching and the gunshot just now drew a certain person or something attention.

On top of a building roof, something emerged from underneath a tarp, the navy color fur that was rather familiar along with a snout with the nose twitching around. A tall humanoid rose and glanced at the direction of the gunshot as its ears raised up trying to pinpoint the exact location.

It sniffed the air a bit as well as trying to listen carefully then it determined the direction. The creature grabbed the gigantic crossbow on the floor as it attached it to the harness on its back. With a destination in mind, the canine looking humanoid sprinted towards the gunshot with an awful grin.