I called Claire as soon as I walked into my apartment.
“Danny, how was it? I decided to do my quest tomorrow. I need to get it done, so…” She hesitated. “I’m rambling again, aren’t I?”
“A little,” I said, smiling, “but I don’t mind. It’s kind of nice. Let me tell you about the map, the compass, and me getting lost… a lot.”
I told her everything—the good parts and the frustrating ones. The dead ends. The wrong turns. The moment I realized the dungeon didn’t care about my sense of direction. And through it all, she laughed. Not the kind of laugh that makes you feel stupid, but the kind that feels like someone’s sharing the moment with you.
“I’m glad you made it out,” she said, still smiling.
“Oh, and I met my neighbor,” she added. “She’s lovely. Her name is Eleanor Whitfield, but she told me to call her Nora. She was seventy-six before the System, and now she’s forty-five and…” She let out a small, disbelieving laugh. “I was completely flabbergasted.”
“I hope she’s not like that other guy,” I said.
“No, not at all,” Claire replied quickly. “She’s really nice. She’s already busy with her quest, actually. I think she sees this as a second chance, and she’s not wasting it. Tomorrow she’s doing her last quest.”
There was something hopeful in the way she said it—like the System hadn’t just taken things away. Like, somehow, it had given a few back too.
“I’m also going to try to get my next level tomorrow. I think, taking the System’s last message into account, that I’ll be planting a tree when I level up.”
“That makes sense,” she said. “With the way the System has been handling these quests.”
We talked a little longer before we both admitted we needed food and a shower. We also knew we had busy, challenging days ahead of us.
I felt a little sad knowing I wouldn’t see Claire the next day, but getting our levels and finishing our quests was more important.
I woke early and did all the usual, normal things. Washed up. Ate. The routine helped settle my nerves.
I had work to do.
Outside, the city was the same hollow shell it had been for days—quiet streets and empty windows. I moved carefully, eyes flicking between the street ahead and my Mini Map. A Level 8 wasn’t something I wanted to stumble into by accident.
It didn’t take long. A red-marked dot slid into view a few blocks ahead. Bigger than the others.
I took a longer route, used parked cars and storefronts for cover, and finally spotted it in the open: a tall kobold with a long polearm resting across its shoulder. A halberd this time—broad blade, brutal reach. It didn’t rush. Just turned, saw me, and started walking forward like it already knew the outcome.
“Yeah,” I muttered. “We’ll see about that.”
Freeze went out first.
The spell caught it mid-step, and locking the kobold in place for a breath-long stretch of stillness. I used it exactly for what it was—time.
Fleetstep flared under my skin, a surge that made the world smear at the edges for a few strides. I didn’t commit. I just slid to an angle and got off the line.
Freeze shattered.
Mana Shield came up a second before the halberd hit.
The impact slammed into the barrier like a sledgehammer on glass. The shield held, barely. Its surface spiderwebbing with fractures as it ate the blow instead of my ribs. The pressure still rang through my arms, a deep vibration that told me I’d pushed the timing as close as it could go.
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I answered with Mana Slash. Not three. Two consecutive mana-infused strikes, one heartbeat apart. The first arc cut into its shoulder. The second ripped across its chest, the glow fading as the spell’s rhythm ended and the cooldown bit hard.
It didn’t slow.
Arc Lash snapped from my staff—mana whip first, then lightning—cracking across its torso. The arcs crawled through its armor, smoke curling up where the energy kissed metal. It staggered half a step.
Still coming. Relentless. Methodical.
Illusory Double shimmered into existence to my left, a perfect decoy within arm’s reach.
The kobold’s eyes snapped to it instantly. The halberd tore through the illusion in a wasted, heavy swing—its blade passing through nothing.
That was my opening for Sapping Bolt.
The projectile hit like a fist to the chest. The kobold stiffened, a visible wave of weakness washing over it as if someone had yanked strength out through its spine. The halberd slipped from its fingers. A second later it collapsed, body hitting the pavement with a dull, final sound.
I stood there for a moment, breathing hard, waiting for it to get back up.
It didn’t.
The first fight left me shaky but standing. I forced myself to breathe then, looted the Kobold, took another deep breath, and told myself not to get cocky.
That lasted about three blocks. Another red dot slid into view on the Mini Map. Same size. Same number.
I should’ve walked away but I didn’t.
This one was in a tighter street, boxed in by abandoned cars and half-collapsed scaffolding—no clean lanes, no long retreats. The kind of place where distance was harder to keep and mistakes had fewer exits.
It saw me immediately.
No slow approach this time. It charged.
I threw Freeze on instinct. The spell clipped it but this time it didn’t give me the full stop I wanted. The kobold tore through the spell with brute force and kept coming. Freeze breaking early under sheer momentum and force.
“Shit.”
Mana Shield—now.
The barrier flared into place just in time. The halberd smashed into it and the whole shield rang, cracks flashing across the surface as it absorbed what it could before the structure started to fail. I stumbled backward into a car door with a metallic thud.
No space.
I fired Mana Slash from too close. Again—two strikes, not three.
The first hit landed clean. The second grazed as it twisted hard and then the spell cadence ended, leaving me with cooldown and bad geometry at the same time.
The kobold shouldered into me.
Pain flared across my side as something tore, fabric and then skin. Heat spread fast
Not life-threatening, but real. The kind of real that makes your stomach drop because you finally feel the margin.
Fleetstep. Speed surged. I slipped past the next swing by inches, boots skidding on broken glass as I forced space into existence. My heart was hammering hard enough to hurt.
Arc Lash snapped out—whip, then lightning—cracking across its chest. It staggered, but not like the first one had.
This one kept its feet.
Illusory Double went out. The kobold hesitated for half a second, eyes flicking, then it ignored the decoy completely and came straight for me.
I didn’t have time for a clean setup. Didn’t have the angle. Didn’t have the luxury.
Sapping Bolt. The spell hit and this time it screamed—raw, furious sound—its charge collapsing into a stuttering stagger as strength bled out in visible waves. It still didn’t drop.
So, I did it the hard way.
I waited out the Mana Slash rhythm, then hit it again, two consecutive slashes, one second apart, driving glowing force into exposed gaps. It reeled.
I moved in, gritting my teeth against the burn in my side, and when the opening finally showed itself… One more Mana Slash pair.
The last arc carved across its neck at an angle sharp enough to end it, and the kobold hit the pavement like a sack of metal and meat.
I stood there, swaying slightly. My side burned.
A familiar pressure wrapped around me as the dome formed, light folding in on itself. I was levelling up at last.
I again decided to place my additional points to endurance and Mana. That was the easy part.
The following was difficult. I had to choose between replacing a spell or additional points and also choose a new spell or upgrade an existing spell.