"Alright let's do this" Ron said. He was going to upgrade his unarmed combat talent to 'good', after this he was going to be able to learn techniques from Scarlett. It was early in the morning as Ron had barely any sleep due to his sleeping schedule being broken by the dungeon.

Ron opened the store and wished to upgrade his talent, it still cost him 2,500 points. Seems like entering the kindling stage didn't decrease the amount as it was pretty much just raw talent. Talent was incredibly useful in training as shown by Ron's rapid progression when it came to the whip.

Confirming his wish Ron didn't feel anything different, after checking his points were indeed down by 2,500 he felt like he was missing something. He got into a stance and threw a punch only to frown. It felt off like something was wrong, it was an instinctual feeling. He threw a few more punches slowly getting a better feel for it.

*woosh* *woosh* The punches cut through the air getting faster and sharper with every second, soon kicks were added to it and it was the same result getting better and better every second. Ron stopped after a couple of minutes breathing out a mouthful of air he didn't even know he had.

"That's incredible," Ron muttered. He felt every flaw in his previous form and rapidly improved on them, getting better by the second. If this was only a 'good' talent what would the 'amazing' talent feel like? Ron got curious and checked the store for the amazing talent upgrade.

"CALCULATING... THE PRICE FOR UPGRADING YOUR TALENT FOR UNARMED COMBAT FROM GOOD TO AMAZING IS 25,000 POINTS"

Ron took in a sharp breath as he saw the price tag, it was the most expensive price tag he had seen to date. But that only meant the results would be that much greater.

"Seems like it worked just fine" Scarlett noted as she noticed from the side. She was surprised at the rapid improvement and a little jealous at the same time. She was trying her hardest to break through yet here was Ron going like an arrow with the wish store.

"So how much for the next talent upgrade?" Scarlett asked after seeing Ron's reaction. It had to be a big number.

"25,000 points for the next upgrade, that's going to take quite a while," Ron said. It might seem like Ron was earning points very quickly however even then the total amount of points Ron has earned until now was barely over half of this one upgrade.

"Indeed, so you ready to get going?" Scarlett asked Ron, usually she would challenge him to a spar however with Ron's hands still not healed up. She was also anxious to find something that she could use to break through.

"Fine, you seem like you're in a hurry" Ron teased Scarlett a little about her impatience as they set off to the forest in the west. Ron still had the body forging potion as well that he wanted to drink but wanted to be healed up first.

Ron could have wished for all his injuries to be restored however that seemed like a waste of wish points. Why wish for something when there was no need to? Sure he could drink the potion right then and there but wish points weren't something he could farm.

After bidding goodbye to the townsfolk Ron and Scarlett moved to the forest, they first wanted to check the bear cave if there was anything in that cave. After walking for a couple of hours they eventually came to the bear cave.

"So how do you want to do this? Just go in and kill the bear?" Ron asked Scarlett even though he already knew the answer to that question. To no-one's surprise Scarlett just nodded and walked into the cave.

After some bangs and cries from the cave Scarlett exited it after 10 minutes, Ron just watched it all happen and when Scarlett got close to Ron he just asked a simple question.

"Feel better now?" It was clear he knew Scarlett was feeling off lately and just used the bear cave as an excuse to help her relieve stress.

"God that felt cathartic, I feel a ton better thanks and sorry for being a little bitchy" Scarlett thanked Ron and apologised for her earlier actions.

Stolen story; please report.

"Water under the bridge, it's fine. Do you want to talk about it?" Ron accepted the apology.

After an uncomfortable amount of silence Scarlett just sat down and heaved a big sigh. Ron just sat down with intent to hear her out. Something was weighing on Scarlett's mind and Ron would help her with what he could.

"I've been stuck at a bottleneck with my martial arts for a while now even before I came here." Scarlett began with some backstory before continuing, "And then I came here and Jeff and all the goblins happened. I had no power or control during the entire situation, it made me feel helpless and weak." Scarlett said with a down tone. Ron just listened along.

"That's why I want to break through before I face the goblins once more. I feel like this place has what I need to break through, I just have to find it." Scarlett declared her determination to break through.

Ron was just quiet taking in the story, he knew Scarlett was strong but she wanted to become even stronger. Even before she came here she wanted to chase strength.

"Why chase strength so hard? Is your world really that dangerous?" Ron guessed the reason for chasing strength was because her world was dangerous.

"Ehh kinda, but it's not the main reason" Scarlett said before explaining the main reason. "The main reason is simple, whoever is the strongest is the person with the most freedom"

Something in those words struck a chord with Ron, freedom. He wanted to explore the tower, however he needed strength to explore the tower to taste that freedom. Freedom in Ron's previous world was all down to how much money a person had. Food and shelter? Money. Safety? Money. Laws? Believe it or not money. One had to work to obtain this money or be born in riches.

Ron knew he needed strength now in order to obtain freedom. So far Ron didn't encounter any bottlenecks and found that he was growing strong rapidly yet here was Scarlett struggling to move forward. It was something Ron didn't want to experience and with enough wish points he wouldn't.

"Didn't you say you have a master? Couldn't they help you?" Ron didn't know much about masters in martial arts however he knew that they were often stronger than their disciples.

"Nope, every martial art is different and every path is different" Scarlett explained a little about martial arts. She had tried to go to her master long ago and received this answer.

"I see, so we just have to find a dungeon you can enter," Ron said. So far dungeons have been nothing but kind, it was difficult but good rewards.

"I agree, however, if only it were that easy" Scarlett said. Finding a dungeon just came down to luck in the end. Not like they could just fall out of the sky.

Ron was silent for a minute before coming up with an idea. He opened the wish store and stated the following wish: "I wish for a compass directing us towards the closest dungeon" It was a specific wish but if it worked he could find dungeons with ease. Dungeons gave good experience, wish points, and good items; it was a win-win-win.

Scarlett heard the wish and looked at Ron with hope and surprise, she kept forgetting the wish store was a thing.

"CALCULATING... THE PRICE FOR A COMPASS THAT POINTS TO THE CLOSEST DUNGEON IS 2,500 POINTS"

It was the rest of the points Ron had, it meant having to go without store bought food and muscle recovering potions for the foreseeable future. Both were now more than strong enough to hunt their own food and Ron needed time to recover and could use the body forging potion to gain more strength. Ron and Scarlett discussed a bit before coming to the decision to confirm the wish.

A compass appeared in a flash and fell into Ron's hand. It was a simple compass with only an arrow in there. The arrow was currently pointing behind them, which made sense as it was pointing to the kobolds cave.

"Seems like we're still going west" Ron said after seeing the compass, it may seem like a wasted wish but this way they could know if they accidentally passed up on a dungeon.

"Thanks, I know you did that wish purely for me" Scarlett smiled and said. Looks like Ron couldn't fool her sharp senses.

"What do you mean? Going to dungeons is good for me too" Ron tried to play it off.

"Sure, Sure" Is all Scarlett said before getting up and walking ahead.

('Am I getting predictable?') Ron thought before shaking his head and getting up to follow her. He wanted to do something nice to get Scarlett out of her slump, it benefitting him was pure chance.

The two of them walked for a bit before encountering something interesting. It was a boar, and Ron felt a little nostalgic. In the first fight he had when he came here it was a boar which ran away and was killed by goblins. It was a good test for the whip and eating a boar seemed nice.

Ron took out the whip and walked towards the boar, just like the first boar it snorted and warned Ron multiple times before charging in. It was simple and even seemed slow in Ron's eyes. In the past he thought it was fast. Ron readied the whip and swung the moment it got close.

*Crack* *tsss* a burning sound emitted as the whip hit the boar, a deep burnt gash opened up as the boar started rolling and screaming out in pain. The whip went through the boar like a hot knife through butter. Ron wanted to test what would happen if something was grabbed by the whip, the description stated contact burns would it just continue to burn it when it held on?

Ron ran up to the boar and got the whip around its neck, soon the burning sound was heard and Ron could smell burnt pork in the air. Ron kept it tight as the whip sank deeper and deeper into the flesh before Ron yanked it one last time, decapitating the boar.

Looking at the decapitated head Ron and Scarlett got chills, this whip was dangerous and was classified as only minor burn damage, what would major burn damage look like?

"Looks like we're eating pork for lunch, that whip is really scary" Scarlett said. If weapons like these existed in her world martial arts featuring weapons would become a massive possibility.

Looking back at the fight Ron saw just how far he had come, from panicking and stabbing wildly like a caveman to cleanly decapitating a boar. It was a novel feeling and one that meant he was moving in the right direction.

After cooking and eating the boar the two continued travelling, they decided to skip the wolves den as it seemed like there was no dungeon there according to the compass. Soon they exited the map's range of the forest and were now walking around in unexplored territory.

Soon a change of scenery started to appear, it was still a forest however there were occasionally white strings around the place. Ron touched one with a stick and confirmed what he thought they were. Cobwebs.

"I hope you don't have arachnophobia, spiders are this way if we continue" Ron said to Scarlett.

"Please, I've seen scarier creatures than some spiders" Scarlett scoffed and didn't think spiders would be much of a threat.

"Looks like we're continuing on then" Ron said and began to move carefully. He didn't know how big these spiders would be but he had a feeling they wouldn't be small.