Upon the successful completion of the chestplate, the system had seen fit to acknowledge Ronan’s accomplishment. He read the notification that had appeared, curious to see how his first ever item would be judged.

  Congratulations, you have successfully crafted an item!

  Mutated Crab Chestplate Lv.22 (Uncommon)

  A roughly hammered chestplate that was created using a piece of chitin from a mutated coconut crab’s shell by an amateur crafter. It has similar durability to the original shell, but is brittle and may break after absorbing too many blows.

  +3 Resistance, +1 Acuity

  For his first attempt at crafting something, it wasn’t half bad. Ronan was pleased with himself. He knew where he’d gone wrong and the next time he made something he wouldn’t repeat his mistakes. Unfortunately his crafting skill hadn’t seen fit to bestow any extra effects on it, but the fact he had even succeeded at all was enough for him.

  There was less than a minute on the countdown to stage 2, which meant he doubted he would have time to craft something else. Ronan satisfied himself with some sorcery practice for the rest of the waiting period.

  0…

  Good luck, challenger!

  He was pulled into the shifting void to the next stage. With his new chestplate equipped, Ronan was ready to face whatever the tutorial had to throw at him.

  When he was spat out of the void, Ronan found himself somewhere unfamiliar. He was in a town, still English based on the architecture, but not one that he’d visited before. The air smelled of salt and fish, not the most appetising combination given what he’d just experienced, but was enough to tell him that the theme of stage 2 would be the same as the first.

  Before he could even walk down the first street that he’d arrived on, Ronan heard the sound of gunfire in the distance. That was followed by a strange screech and then a large bang. Underneath the louder noises he could hear men and women screaming and yelling.

  Ronan rushed towards the direction that the noise was coming from. That was where he would find his first battle. Of that much he was certain. He passed more buildings as he ran, but they soon became a blur as he gathered speed. With over two thousand strength and agility, Ronan was well beyond superhuman limits.

  He came to a screeching halt at the top of a sand dune that led to a vast beach. In the distance he finally saw what had been making the earlier noises. A group of soldiers were fighting against a gigantic worm that was half-buried in the sand. It thrashed about, squashing people each time its enormous body crashed against the beach. The soldiers were equipped with assault rifles, but they seemed to barely scratch the worm, judging by the lack of wounds on its sandy exterior.

  Ronan knew that if nothing changed, the worm would kill all of the soldiers or they would be forced to flee. That was when two ordinary people rushed out of a cave set in the base of the cliffs on the opposite side of the beach, a giant crab in hot pursuit. Scratch that. All of these people are fucked unless I step in to help. Lucky for them I never say no to a seafood boil. An excited grin plastered on his face, Ronan rushed down the sand dune and conjured a medium-sized javelin. He was ready to take down some more oversized marine life.

  He wasn’t sure if Mark of the Eternal Seeker had a maximum range, but he used it on the worm and the crab anyway. It worked perfectly, meaning it could at least go a distance of about six hundred metres. When he was just four hundred away, he let the javelin fly.

  While he closed the remaining distance, Ronan conjured a series of similarly sized javelins and launched them into the sky as hard as he could throw them. With his other hand he formed a number of mana bolts and tossed them into the fray. When he neared the giant worm, he stopped both and instead began to channel a rainbow bomb. He loved making a dramatic entrance.

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  The soldiers were making a somewhat tactical retreat. The two civilians ran past them, the crab in hot pursuit. Having seen that they were about to be overwhelmed, the soldiers made the decision to flee after them. That was perfect for Ronan. It meant he could let the rainbow bomb fly without worrying about collateral damage. When the crab was close enough to the worm that he could get both in the blast, he let it fly.

  He realised as the kaleidoscopic shattering tore through the bodies of the two oversized creatures that he was entering the realm of the nonsensically overpowered. Two chimes sounded in his ears as the chromatic explosion faded and he was left staring at four limp bits of worm and crab corpse. The sand was stained a mix of red and deep blue. The group of soldiers and the two civilians had ducked behind a dune right before the explosion went off, but they emerged with expressions of shock on their faces shortly afterwards, staring at the aftermath.

  Ronan was forced to suppress a sigh when he saw that they were walking towards him. He didn’t really like awkward conversations, but it would help a lot if he gained information about where he was. Killing two monsters certainly wouldn’t be all there was to stage 2, given that stage 1 had that requirement. They were a couple hundred metres away, so while they walked he used the time to check the kill notifications.

  You have killed [Mutated Crab Lv.40] and [Mutated Lugworm Lv.40]

  +2 Bronze Credits

  +91 Copper Credits

  +11 [Mana VI] Mastery

  +9 [Javelin] Mastery

  +6 [Spellcasting] Mastery

  +1 [Stamina VI] Mastery

  +Mutated Crab Leg Lv.40 (Uncommon)

  +Mutated Lugworm Flesh Lv.40 (Uncommon)

  You have leveled up to Lv.33!

  …

  You have leveled up to Lv.42!

  +150 Vitality

  +150 Endurance

  +90 Wisdom

  +40 Regeneration

  +20 Resistance

  +90 Intelligence

  +90 Acuity

  +200 Charisma

  +8050 Luck

  +3330 Free Stat Points

  Because he had the Gambler of Fate class, his free stat points could only go into luck. The stat was at an absurd level. It also made him appreciate just how ridiculous Stupendous Stats was.

  Even though the vast majority of his points were in luck, with it being over 40,000 at that point, all of his other stats gained an extra 5,000-plus to their total. He realised that his earlier investments to round out his build had been rather pointless. Still, he wouldn’t regret them. He doubted most other nightmare participants had as strong a build as he did.

  At that point the soldiers had crossed the beach and were just a few metres away from him. They seemed hesitant to approach, so he plastered a friendly smile on his face and gave them a wave. That seemed to disarm them for a moment before they visibly relaxed and made the final approach.

  “That was incredible, sir! What kind of skill is that, that lets you blow the fucking fish to high hell?” Apparently he’d been a little too friendly, because the first soldier went straight for the jugular.

  Not that Ronan minded. He preferred that sort of open communication to people dancing around what they really wanted to say. It reminded him how long it had been since he had a normal conversation with a normal human, from his own world. In that regard this doesn’t really count, I suppose. This isn’t my world and these aren’t really my people…

  “It’s err… A magic skill. Pretty high rarity, I don’t think you’d be able to get it. Were you all using guns to try and kill the monsters? Don’t you have classes and skills of your own?” He was a little confused about that part. Even the weakest classes and skills should be more potent than a gun when it came to fighting the fucked up creatures that the integration created.

  The soldiers looked at each other. The one who’d spoken to him first rubbed his chin. “Most of the skills the system gives out aren’t worth the text they’re written on, to be honest. The class skills are decent, but most of us prefer to just use what we know. The guns work on a lot of monsters, but these giant sea fuckers are another matter.”

  Ronan liked the guy more with every word that came out of his mouth. “Giant sea fuckers? Not a bad nickname. Giant seafood ingredients now, though.” Ronan took the lower level crab leg out of his inventory, keeping the one he’d just earned for later. He’d used some of it for crafting, but at that moment he had an arguably better idea. “You lot hungry? I don’t think I’ve tried big ass crabs before.”