Ronan let the last piece of shell from the mutated coconut crab leg fall to the sand dune at his feet. He patted his stomach and then let out an ungodly loud burp. “That was incredible. I need to kill more of these big sea monsters so I can barbecue them.”

  He’d started up a fire and cooked the oversized crab leg with the help of the soldiers and the two civilians. I guess technically I’m a civilian, too, but given the power difference I don’t think the soldiers are really worrying about that distinction right now. Before his first bite he had been worried that the flesh coming from a ‘mutated’ monster might make it poisonous or just taste like shit, but from the first bite he had entered a new realm of culinary heaven.

  The crab meat was soft and juicy, practically melting on his tongue. A comforting warmth spread through his body and filled him from the tips of his toes to the ends of his fingers and the top of his scalp. Then the notification from the system appeared.

  Consuming [Barbecued Mutated Coconut Crab Leg Lv.25] has granted you +5% Agility for 24 hours!

  23:59:59…

  A small flashing icon of a crab leg appeared in the corner of his vision. If Ronan focused on it, it showed the amount of time that was left until the agility buff ran out. A percentage-based buff was perfect for him, given that he had a little over 8,000 agility. If it counted the bonus stats for the buff, which it did based on the increase he saw, then that was an extra 400 or so agility simply for having a delicious meal. I should cook and eat monsters more often.

  He actually wondered why he’d never done so before. The reason was that he’d either died before needing to eat or simply had other food to hand. The idea of eating most of the monsters he’d fought until that point was also less than palatable. Snacking on a crab leg was actually somewhat appealing, whereas the thought of eating a goblin toe made him want to tear his stomach out and seal it away so that the chance of such a thing happening was a cold, hard zero.

  “Did you all get the agility buff, too?” Ronan was curious to know if that was an effect limited to the person who prepared the monster meat or supplied the ingredient or if everyone who ate it received the same bonuses.

  Everyone nodded. “Yeah, it’s not very good for me, though. I only have like twelve agility so it’s just giving me one extra point,” one of the soldiers said.

  The others had similar reactions. Only one of the soldiers earned two points from the bonus. She was a wiry woman with twitchy hands. Ronan suspected she was the fastest of her group and had probably put most of her points into agility or had a class that provided more of it than other stats.

  While they had cooked and eaten the crab leg Ronan had asked them questions about where they were and what was going on with the oversized creatures emerging from the ocean. Apparently they were in a seaside town called Staithes in Yorkshire. He’d not heard of it, but it was rather picturesque—at least the parts he’d seen on his way to the beach to kill the two monsters.

  As for the sea monster problem, the soldiers didn’t really know. Supposedly there was some big event in the sea a few months back and then giant sea creatures had begun to emerge from it in the few weeks leading up to his arrival in stage 2 of the tutorial. Or possibly stage 1. Time was hard to judge between stages, especially in the nightmare tutorial where the setting and scenario were roughly the same but the location seemed to shift when the tutorial called for it.

  In any case, Ronan was fairly certain that there wouldn’t be any complex puzzles to solve to complete stage 2. He would just need to find the rest of the big sea creatures and beat them to death. Simple.

  Unfortunately the soldiers didn’t have any information about more monster sightings. The town had been evacuated a week or so ago and the two people who had run out of the cave were only there because they were idiots who wanted to get some pictures or something. Ronan didn’t really listen to that part of the story.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  However, he didn’t need to worry. As they finished up the meal, a loud bang could be heard from behind the dune. One of the soldiers poked their head over to have a look and threw themselves back down, their face having drained itself of colour. “More monsters coming out of the ocean. I saw at least three. We need to get out of here, now. There’s no way we can handle that many.”

  The other soldiers had a brief peek before agreeing with their comrade. They turned to Ronan as a collective. “We know you’re strong, but Barry is right. We can’t fight that. We need to get the hell out of here. Once we’re far enough away we can call for an airstrike on the fuckers.”

  Ronan walked up to the top of the dune and lay down against the sand and tall grass. He poked his head over to see what they were making so much fuss about. There were five monsters at the moment he looked towards the sea. The water was churning and as he watched, another broke through the surface. An assortment of crabs, strange fish with legs, and even a massive sea urchin were slowly making their way onto and up the beach.

  After a brief glance at the tags floating above each of the monsters Ronan realised they were all roughly the same as the two he’d already killed, with some minor variation. In fact one of them even had an elite tag, which was neat. More shards was always beneficial, even if ones around level 40 wouldn’t push his cultivation up by a huge amount. With the number of talent multipliers he had thanks to his various skills, classes, and other boosts, he was sure he could squeeze some solid progress out of just about any shard, no matter the level.

  He rolled back down the dune to the soldiers and the two civilians. “Yeah, you should all definitely get the hell out of here. There’s no way you can take on even one of those monsters.”

  The foul-mouthed soldier called Donovan raised an eyebrow. “I notice you didn’t include yourself in the group that’s meant to be running away. Do you have a death wish or something? I get that you’re pretty strong but there are a lot more than two monsters there.”

  Ronan let out a dry chuckle. “Don’t worry about me. That little light show you saw earlier was just a warmup. Also, I’ve got a taste for seafood now and I really want to quench that craving. Always loved me a bit of sushi. Just get going or you’ll get caught in the chaos. Nice to meet you all. Glad we could share a meal and chat.”

  The soldiers all nodded and in an unexpected moment, saluted him. It was heartwarming and almost brought a tear to his eye. Almost. With that, the soldiers ran off, escorting the two civilians. They were headed towards the town he’d come from. They were no longer his problem.

  He walked back up the dune, this time not caring if he was noticed by the overgrown sea monsters. While talking, another two monsters had appeared, bringing the total to eight. Ronan wondered how to start the battle. A second later he started channeling two rainbow bombs. Is there anything better? Especially with this new sorcerer evolution. The last one felt really… cohesive? Just flowed better. Was a little more explosive too. Properly vibrant. While yapping to himself he finished forming both rainbow bombs. They hovered above his palms, barely constrained colourful chaos ready to tear their targets apart.

  Ronan let them fly. They whizzed through the air. The monsters noticed them before they struck, but it was too late to do anything about them. He noticed a shimmering field of mana coating the sea urchin, but none of the others did anything similar. Twin explosions tore through the air. When they faded, the beach looked as though it had been hit by that airstrike the soldiers talked about.

  Three of the monsters died immediately and all the rest were injured to varying degrees. Ronan charged in, letting a few javelins fly as he ran. This new style of combat came naturally to him the more he used it. His spells were more refined thanks to constant practice and use, and the massively increased stats made them devastating.

  He also suspected that his huge luck was causing plenty of them to be critical hits. I wonder if there is a limit to the number of sub-classes I can obtain? If I can get like five or six my stats would just be fucking ridiculous. Then again it would cost a prohibitive amount of chronos merits by that point. But even a third or fourth… The possibilities are insane.

  It didn’t take that long to butcher the rest of the sea monsters. The urchin took the longest. The strange shimmering field of mana that surrounded it blocked magical effects. His spells weren’t as powerful against it. That didn’t mean they did no damage, but it was much more efficient to just conjure a hammer and smash the crap out of it until it was nothing but a pile of jellified insides and broken needles.

  Once he had killed it, a notification appeared, letting him know that he had completed stage 2 of the nightmare tutorial. I think I might be able to go all the way this time.