Everything revolved around speed and RJ being a tank, pretty much sucked at anything speed-related.

That’s okay though. She can be the shield while Tetsu acts as the wheels and brains of the operations.

Divide and conquer.

The flowers won’t know what hit them.

Tetsu takes a quick peek at his health and mana pool. ‘Health, check. Mana, check.’

He still had quite a lot of health and some mana left in the swirling tornado of resources.

He wasn’t offered a skill for his ingenious stunt, so he named it himself.

Tetsu starts with a sprint, then blazes into a blur. The pants slowed him down, but they were a necessary defense against the heat waves.

By feeling the wind resistance on his face, Tetsu guessed his speed to reach a new milestone of fourteen miles an hour.

It's a blur when compared to pre-system Tetsu.

He points and flicks pebbles in different directions, sending them flying into the remaining mana-bubbles, dispersing the mana back into the atmosphere.

It might be a bigger disadvantage for them, but at least it won’t play against its creator.

‘Sorry Frankenstein but I am smarter. My creation ain’t going to do me out.’

With the resource tornado at his command, Tetsu sprints forward, pulling a few pebbles for extra safety.

He flanks the Dandralith, losing his grip over the tornado and tightening his grip over the pebbles.

At the last moment, Tetsu ditches his pants and leaps high.

[Ding: Skill: Vertical jump. Jump: 2mtrs. Level: Initiate. Rarity: common.]

Tetsu accepts the skill as the pebbles behind Tetsu soared forward, forcing the Dandralith to back away.

She didn’t fear the pebbles, yet took a precautionary step back. The humans were known for their underhanded tactics and she didn’t trust this one to be any different.

Tetsu expected it to dodge. Using the distance between them, he pushes the resource tornado forward, basking RJ with health and mana.

RJ understood the plan as soon as the tornado washed over her.

By now she was quite familiar with the formation and the pure mana and health it gathered. RJ focused and tried to absorb the resources before the tornado faded. She didn’t know how the human pulled it off, but once the bubbles burst, one had to hurry... wait! She kept absorbing as the resources kept circling her.

Somehow, she was inside the damn bubble.

RJ sees the human circling his fingers in the air. ‘A new skill?’

She wonders as her eyes trail lower to find Tetsu’s new pants. ‘ Secondary protection for his jewels?’ She ignores the rest and concentrates on the new protection.

‘Not bad human.’ She nods to herself.

Tetsu lands and slides into his old pants.

These were clearly more awesome and suited him much better, according to RJ.

RJ used identify on the pants and found out they were a rather simple artifact with some okayish enchantments.

A low-tier enchantment that gives no stats.

Sure, self-repair enchantment is overpowered and is super rare, but a weak pant needs such an enchantment. The gift she bestowed upon the dumb human is superior in every way.

Her pants give impressive stats and now he can also move while wearing them. Even though it’s the bare minimum.

She can still outrun him, but the pants can tank anything. Which is still a better trade-off than self-repair.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Why repair something that can never break?

It’s a wonder how the dumb human got his hands on such rare pants. Maybe her initial assessment had been right? He can find rare resources.

He’s smart enough to find one, and at the same time, dumb enough not to bind them to him. It’s like he wants her to steal his equipment away.

A quick glance at Tetsu's remaining discoveries made RJ realize that the partially burnt shoes and strange cape were not a fashion statement, but rather enchanted equipment that had been burnt.

‘Why am I protecting him again? He’ll be dead soon.’ RJ argues with herself.

Tetsu rushes onto RJ’s side, topping up his resources one more time.

The tornado fades away, running out of resources. Tetsu’s skill deactivates on its own, as it has nothing else to command.

It did not top both of them up as the tornado leaked quite a lot of resources along the way, but this should be enough.

‘Need more practice.’ Tetsu makes a mental note.

Tetsu acquired the knowledge along with the skill, yet maintaining his mana around the tornado was tricky. Without the skill to shape his mana, the tornado would have never formed.

‘What if I use the tornado to learn how to control my mana? Hack the hack!’

Tetsu smiles as a solid theory sits in his mind. Once this fight is done, he will master the art of mana control.

Pulling his head back into the game. Tetsu focuses on the ‘RR’ skill.

Based on the missing ethereal needles in his head, either the other beasts were approaching or the Dandralith’s teammates had figured out his trick.

‘Plan C and D are out.’ Tetsu mentally erases the idea of entering the forest.

“We have to run.” Said Tetsu. “Follow me.” He nods and flicks two charcoal shards. “Come.” He commands his artifact to approach within the cover of the smoke.

This artifact was still an unknown piece in the game and he can use it to surprise the Dandralith.

“Mimic on.” He chants and sprints away from the Dandralith.

Tetsu’s mana dips as RJ doesn’t even budge an inch. “How heavy are you now? I told you to stop eating so much.”

He turns to see RJ standing still, facing the Dandralith.

“Need more.” He commands more power and loses a third of his mana pool while RJ stands her ground.

“Are you resisting? But why? We don’t have time...” Tetsu uses even more force.

RJ budges a little. The last jerk confirmed her resistance.

"Women are trouble no matter the race."

Tetsu checks his mana pool to be below fifty percent. If the target doesn’t comply or resists this skill, it can bleed his mana pool dry.

The worst time to find out about a backlash, and such a huge backlash at that.

The centerpiece of his plan failed, collapsing the entire structure of hope.

‘Now what?’ Tetsu pants, his eyes darting between the furious Dandralith and a stubborn RJ.

His panting fuels his fear, turning it into a full-blown panic.

RJ finally understands the human's skill. This had been the same skill he used to carry her to safety before he hatched for the second time.

Now that she thinks about it, it makes sense that he used a skill. Otherwise, there was no way a mere level one human could carry her mold.

She weighed a ton, which is still considered malnourished for her level.

‘Rio cover.’ She uses a skill to manipulate the shield around the human.

Taking a small step over the human's foot and an incredible yell from him later, he snapped back to reality.

‘This isn’t the time to panic.’ She gurgles at the human.

RJ steps in front of Tetsu and nudges him to escape.

Their communication sucked, but he should be clever enough to understand a simple gesture.

The nudge meant, you run, I stay, cover, and fight.

Gemhide’s don’t run. No one taught her to flee from a battle. Not that she would learn it if they taught.

Anyway, turning their backs to a Dandralith will only stroke their sadistic nature to attack.

Not to mention that running away creates way more openings.

Their clan knew this and made an ironclad rule not to run. Deserters get banned from the clan.

the dumb human does not have a bond related to a Gemhide or a Quater:node. He gets to run. He should run. If he ran, it would be the first smart thing he had done since they met.

Testu snaps back to reality after the dumb fucking rhino steps on his pinky. He wriggles the toe, and it responds.

A huge sigh escaped Tetsu, relieved that she didn’t squash his foot during a life-and-death fight.

He half suspected her to break him and escape. But why would she save him just to throw him under the bus?

The Dandralith pondered over the sights that baffled her. A level one human somehow flared its danger sense without using a skill and now argued with the level ten Quater:node.

Both accused each other of being dumb.

The Quater:node wanted to fight, which is expected and commendable, while the human wanted to flee, which is also expected from their pathetic race.

Yet both of them were clueless about general translation skills.

The powerful creatures are blessed by the system with a unique translation skill. The skill helped them understand the other two-legged creatures to an extent, helping them learn and adapt. The skill acted as a cornerstone for their advancement but that's beside the point.

Humans require a strong bond to gain such translation skills and neither of them knew nor understood how stupid they both were.

This was already too easy and now... the Dandralith caught the Quater:node expanding her invisible shield around the human.

‘Are they a pair?’ Dandralith wondered. ‘Not unusual for a human to suck up to anything that can provide.’

The Dandralith sent wisps of mana that clashed over the invisible shield. They were harmless extensions meant to measure the shield's range.

‘No openings’ she noted and planted herself.

RJ notices the shift and backs away.

‘Underground’ Dandralith smiles, figuring out the shield’s weakness. The human wasn’t a threat, yet she noted its position.

Tetsu stands upright, facing the Quater:node, not even bothering with the Dandralith’s next attack.

‘Time to run?’ she snickers to herself.

The human surprises her by throwing a black shard without even looking. The shard burst into a cloud of smoke, obstructing her vision. Before she can identify the shard, another smoke bomb explodes.

‘What’s with this human?’ She rages, releasing tiny spores of explosion while its roots travel underground.

‘Bad move…’

Before she can complete her thought, she loses her connection with the tendrils. The relentless force of something slashes through, severing every tender root that dares to emerge.

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