In high-risk situations, overconfidence could easily become one's cause of death. Zach was reminded of this as he summoned his Kralzek's Beast, which he then used to buy himself some time as he backed away, grabbed all three rejuvenation stones that he'd brought with him off the floor near the partition—one of each color—and hurriedly slapped them onto his body before he died.

All three were accepted. But would they even be enough?

Oh, fuck, it looks so bad, Zach thought, forcing himself to divert his eyes away from his belly, where his guts and innards were literally leaking out of a monstrously bad wound that he'd suffered from the Legion Portal Guardian. Having become impatient, Zach had attempted to take a reckless swing at its left wrist only to leave himself open and vulnerable, and for that, the Orcish elite mob had carved him across his entire belly, the axe ripping apart his flesh like he was a piece of meat being cut up for dinner.

But…at least he was healing.

"Morgar bark kur!" the Orc yelled as it made quick work of Zach's war-mount.

Hanging back, Zach took slow breaths and tried to ignore the sound of a wet plop on the stone floor as portions of his gut and stomach were ejected while the purple stone regrew them fresh. It was as weird as it was disgusting, and he became very unsettled as he felt something hot and slimy splash onto his bare feet.

To take his mind off his wound, he watched as his large, saber-toothed cat clawed the Orc across its face and dealt 10,444 damage to the elite mob, whose name, HP, and status were completely hidden, as Zach currently had no Helm Sight and was not in Unleashed Phase. Therefore, all he saw was "Level 60" floating in the air above the Orc's scowling visage, along with the damage number.

I think I'm going to be okay. Zach carefully and cautiously felt his stomach with his palm. It didn't hurt to touch. He looked down and saw it was now covered by fresh, new skin. The stones had done the job. That was way too close.

Less than an hour ago, Zach had woken up in a very good mood, ready to get started. Having achieved victory the day prior, he was eager to kill the elite mob a second time, and this go around, without relying on Unleashed Phase. Of course, this would only be possible if the mob had even respawned, as he had no idea what kind of timer this thing was on.

As it turned out, when Zach had entered the tower and made his way over to the partition, he could see the elite mob standing in its usual spot, its dual axes dripping an endless supply of blood. Interestingly, he'd also noted that the steps leading up to the next floor that had popped out of the stone walls yesterday were gone, meaning they had "de-spawned," and Zach was fairly sure this implied they only remained in existence for as long as the mob was dead.

Now, as his Kralzek's Beast suffered its last point of damage and dropped dead onto the floor, Zach, healed, stepped in and decided to take no further risks. He'd learned his lesson. What he needed was patience. Especially since he was significantly weaker without Unleashed Phase active, and he was slower and less dexterous.

Dialing back his pace considerably, he took his time and picked his moments carefully, sneaking in a swing here or a slice there. He had to focus more heavily on evading and less on guarding, as the loss of Unleashed Phase made it much more tiring to guard and much more punishing when the Orcish elite blocked one of his strikes.

But he got the job done. At least there was that! Okay, did it take him over a half-hour? Sure. Did it leave him sweating and gasping for breath? Absolutely. But as someone whose stamina needed a lot of work after eight months of idly sitting behind a desk, it was great exercise and only served to further reacquaint him with his former self.

"There we go," Zach said as he lobbed off the Legion Portal Guardian's right hand; it plopped onto the stone floor, joining its left, and now, the vicious mob became nothing more than a fleshy statue, inanimate and still. But this left Zach with a rather silly problem. He was so damn tired he wasn't even sure he had the strength to hack its head off. He actually had to sit on his butt and wait to catch his breath before finally standing back up to his feet and getting to work.

Even though Unleashed Phase with a Phase Level of 0 would've only granted him +20 strength, it still clearly mattered, as without it, Zach now felt like a lumberjack manually chopping down a tree in a forest as he hacked away at the Orc over and over. Finally, however, he took its head off, and when he did, the mob died instantly despite likely having close to—if not more—than two-million HP left. That was just a guess, of course, because Zach could no longer see the mob's status. Regardless, Zach was just glad there existed a faster way of slaying these elites; otherwise, he'd have to stab it again and again until his arms felt like they'd fall off.

They already do!

+110,000xp

"Phew," Zach said, sighing. Then he sucked the air right back into his lungs as he saw a glowing, purple light on the floor.

Could it be?

He leaned in closer.

It was!

It's a drop, he thought. And an Epic-Rare based on the color of the light!

As Zach knelt down to see what he'd gotten, he heard the familiar rumbling as rectangular platforms serving as steps began to jut out of the stone all around him, circling the tower twice as they led up to what he presumed to be the second floor. Since the mob clearly wasn't on a weekly timer, one of the things Zach was interested in learning today was how long the elite Orc would actually take to respawn. He'd have to estimate it, of course, because he'd deliberately left his phone in his estate, so he was going to need to rely on his own judgement rather than technology.

But first, let's see what I got.

The light stopped shining as his hand approached, and now, he could see what looked to be a pair of badass-looking, knee-high boots.

Whoah.

The boots were mostly black on the front and back with crimson-red sides and thick, rubber soles. They also had laces that ran all the way up the front side. The combination of the black and red gave them a powerful yet aesthetic look, which their stats would hopefully justify: especially as an Epic-Rare.

"Cool," Zach whispered, making his typical shoulder-tap gestures as he took possession of the item and began to inspect it.

(EPIC RARE): Bold Treads of New Horizons: discovered by Zachys Calador

Level-61 Boots

Armor + 11

+11 dex

+12 spd

Every 2,000 steps, the user generates 1 Jolt Charge (max 5).

Jolting Restraint: consume all 5 Jolt Charges to unleash an AOE, lightning-based magical stun that stuns all nearby enemies (50 range) for a duration between 3.5-8 seconds.

Zach chewed his bottom lip as he read the item description over, and already, he was imagining how he could use this to his advantage. Though this wasn't some kind of mesmerizingly great drop, it was pretty damn good. For starters, the stats were better than the stats had been on his previous footwear, "Decorative Shoes of En'Zahar." He couldn't remember exactly what those had had on them, but he remembered them being uncommon—green rarity—and only having around 5 armor and stuff with no ability attached. So, just from a stats perspective, this was actually a clean upgrade.

But more importantly, the stun on the ability had a minimum duration of 3.5 seconds. From what Zach understood when it came to non-biological entities such as mobs and bosses, if his stun successfully landed and was not outright resisted, the item's description meant that it was guaranteed to last 3.5 seconds at a bare minimum regardless of how powerful the foe he was fighting. By comparison, his inner sword ability, Halting Strike, only lasted between 0.5 and 1.2 seconds.

And this one can last as long as 8 seconds!

Grabbing his new boots, Zach moved his way safely over to the partition that separated the bottom-floor central atrium, and then he took a seat and rested his back on the wall while he held them in his hands and looked them over. Having sheathed his sword, he was still basically naked except for his underwear and the scabbard on his back. He was tempted to try them on, but he wasn't currently wearing any socks, and his feet were filthy. Given that he'd originally planned to be in his gear at almost all times, the only clothing Zach had packed with him had been some underwear and a few pairs of socks. At the very least, he wanted to rinse himself off and change his boxers.

But before he did anything, he needed to rest awhile and catch his breath.

Over the course of the next few minutes, Zach remained in a seated position with his back to the wall, his breathing heavy, his heart still pounding, and more fresh sweat dripping down his face, his underarms damp, and his exhaustion slowly receding. Eventually, he felt capable of returning to his feet, and he stood back upright.

And just as he turned to leave, the elite respawned.

No way, he thought, shocked. That quickly?

The moment of its appearance, the rectangular stone slabs that ran around the circular tower and led up to the second floor began turning transparent before vanishing entirely. Zach had expected that they would rumble and slide back inside the wall—but no, they simply faded out of existence. And now, once more, the Legion Portal Guardian stood with its bloody axes dripping. Interestingly, the two little puddles of blood on the stone floor spawned with the mob, meaning they were there before any of the first droplets actually dripped.

That couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes, Zach thought. That's a really, really short respawn timer. Reminds me of Yorna.

Still somewhat exhausted, Zach squeezed through the partition, made his way through the central atrium, and exited the tower, where he jogged down the twenty steps leading up to its entrance, navigated around the horrifically smelling dead boss, and hurried back to his little makeshift camp. Having gotten fully settled in, there was now a campfire, his sleeping bag, his cooking area, and a place where some of the stuff from his packs was laid out.

Putting down his boots, he stripped naked and took a swim in the clean, freshwater pond near his stuff. Actually, was this even a pond? Or was it a spring? The latter was probably more likely, as the water was perfectly clear, fresh, and lacked any murkiness.

"I need to speed things up," he mumbled to himself as he used a bar of soap to clean himself. Then he dove fully underneath, letting the water reinvigorate him. Lastly, right after getting out, he used a washcloth and scrubbed a few disgusting pieces of his own lower or upper—he had no idea—intestines from between his toes. And with that, he was fresh and crisp.

Back at camp, he changed his underwear, slipped into a pair of socks, and then, while in a seated position on his sleeping bag, he put on his new boots and secured the laces. Finally, he stood back up, and when he did, he made a giddy little chirp of satisfaction. They felt good. Really good. Gods, it felt amazing to have some damn shoes on again. He could also feel the increase in his speed and coordination.

Zachys Calador: Level 28

(608277/1000000xp)

Armor Bonus: 11

91 strength

100 dexterity

93 constitution

82 intelligence

61 speed

15 luck

As Zach gave his stats a look over, he found it hard not to imagine what would've happened to him if he'd taken that very same axe to the stomach without the +35 to constitution provided by his Primordial Void Blade.

There's no way I'd still be alive, he thought.

Zach shook his head. He decided to focus on the positive and not the negative. He'd been given an important warning about becoming overconfident, and to that end, he wouldn't rush straight back into battle against the elite. No, he needed to give his body time to cool down a bit. After all, even considering how early the sun set at this time of year, it was still very early in the morning, probably only around nine or so.

I should go jogging for a bit. Yeah, that's what I'll do.

For the first time since arriving, Zach decided to finally take a little tour of this island in the sky. Thanks to the giant, tall tower, which was visible from everywhere, he didn't have to worry about getting lost, either. And so, for the sake of his stamina but also to enjoy the artificially warmer morning air, Zach took off in a random direction and continued to run on a path that took him through several fields of green. As he ran, he spooked several deer and other little critters. There didn't appear to be any mobs on the island outside of the tower.

"Sorry," he said to a deer that took off running as he darted past it. "I didn't mean to—whoah!"

Zach came to an abrupt halt as there was a flash of something—something sparking—below him along with a zap-like crackle. It took him a moment to realize it'd come from his new boots. He chuckled to himself a moment later as he realized that that must've just been what would happen whenever he earned a "stack," which at 2000 steps, was somewhere in the ballpark of a mile. Without Helm Sight giving him access to his buff bar, he would have to mentally keep track of when he hit 5.

That's one, then, he thought, continuing on.

He paused as he came upon the edge of the island, and he stopped to stare in wonder and fascination at the strange, surreal sight that greeted him. Right now, the island was just high enough to be above the massive cloud cover and thunderstorms that were completely saturating the skies above Plains of Mist, which meant there was nothing but light blue all across the horizon. For this reason, as Zach leaned over and looked down at the air only a few feet below the ledge ahead of him, it honestly looked like an entire lake made of clouds, one that occasionally flashed as lightning struck down at the world below, just visible beneath the layers of clouds.

It looks like something I could swim in, he thought. So cool.

For about fifteen minutes, he sat with his legs dangling over the edge of the island, resting and relaxing, and then he went for a proper, more strenuous jog, doing several laps around the entire island. Every so often, more sparks would fly out of the back of his boots, indicating that he'd earned another charge, though true to the ability's description, this came to an end after he'd jogged about five miles and had a full five stacks.

Once again sweating, he decided to head back to his camp and open up some canned chicken and corn, which satisfied the appetite he had worked up. And now, with the sun in a position that Zach estimated to be around noon, he decided to have another go at the elite Orc, so he made his way back inside the tower.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

And this time was by far the easiest—even without Unleashed Phase.

The moment Zach dodged its typical opening lunge, he decided to activate Jolting Restraint, which caused the Orc's entire body to become trapped inside a yellow, ball-shaped prison of electricity, which made loud, audible crackles, then vanished almost in the same instant that it appeared—but the effects of it lingered.

Now, the Legion Portal Guardian's hands dropped flat to its sides, each one still gripped around an axe, though it remained perfectly, completely frozen, not moving so much as an inch. Zach, rushing forward, swung his blade as many times as he could with as much speed as he was able, each time targeting its right wrist. He didn't even pay attention to the subsequent damage numbers or mentally keep track of how many times he struck. He simply hacked and hacked and hacked, and to his amazement, he not only succeeded in severing the Orc's right hand, but he made significant progress on its left one, too.

Holy shit, I think that lasted the whole eight seconds!

With one hand gone and the other grievously injured, the remainder of the fight was trivial, though Zach still exercised a bit of caution so as not to repeat his mistake from earlier this morning, especially since he only had 1 yellow rejuvenation stone left, and those were important in the event of blood loss. Even healing himself externally and internally with the red and purple stones would not matter if he lost too much blood and still died anyway.

He needed to be careful.

+110,000xp

As the Orc died and faded away into fine grains of white sand, Zach was overjoyed to see yet another shining, purple light. But this joy was short-lived as it turned out to be another pair of the exact same boots he'd just gotten. He even checked the stats on it to make sure they were duplicates. Still, he wasn't about to throw away perfectly good loot, so he chucked them in Bank and Storage and decided to take another few laps around the island to charge himself up again. And as he ran around the outer perimeter of this floating land in the sky, he snickered as he recalled a word Jimmy had taught him.

Cheesed, he recalled. I'm cheesing this mob.

Zach's laughter fell off, and a pain briefly flared in his chest as he worried about his friend. Gods, he desperately, desperately hoped Jimmy was still alive—that they all were. But perhaps this wasn't really something he should be thinking about, as it made him anxious and impatient, and such things would only get him killed.

I'll know when I know.

After a short break and another light snack, Zach glanced up at the sky and estimated the time to be around 3:30, maybe a bit earlier. But since night could come around as early as 4:30, he decided to only kill the elite one last time for the day, though not without lamenting the fact that there were no internal light sources in the "dungeon," which really sucked because, otherwise, he could stay up all night grinding these Orcs.

+110,000xp

Nothing dropped for him on the third kill, so Zach, having quickly dispatched it once more, again turned around to leave. He stopped, however, as he became curious about what awaited him next. Sheathing his sword, he decided to climb up the strange, rectangular, slab-like "steps" that wrapped twice around the outer perimeter of the tower before leading to a fully open second floor.

"Oh, damn," he whispered to himself. "That's going to be tough."

The second floor had no partition dividing it into two sections, but it was also much, much smaller than the central atrium below. The entire floor was only slightly bigger than the side of the partition where the elite Orc spawned. There was also nothing in here except a door-shaped opening across from him, one that was guarded by three elite mobs—or at least Zach assumed they were elite—and sealed over by a lightly colored piece of flat stone.

Two were the exact same mob he'd been fighting downstairs: the Legion Portal Guardians. The third, on the other hand, was an insanely beautiful human woman with long, flowing crimson hair and armor that, no joke, seemed designed specifically to highlight her big boobs. It was like some kind of boob armor. She was also tall for a woman, nearly six feet in height, and she was equipped with what looked like a single rapier.

"Three at once," he thought. "Sheesh."

Heading back down to the first floor, Zach retrieved his three emergency rejuvenation stones and headed back. Hopefully, he'd end up looting pants or at least something with pockets so that he could start bringing all his stones with him. For the time being, this was going to have to do.

As the sun set on his fourth day here, he jogged just enough to get three of his five stacks back, but then he had to call it a day when it became unsafe due to the darkness. The last thing he wanted was to accidentally fall off the island and end up crashing into someone's home down below in nothing but his boots and a pair of underwear. Good luck explaining that to the vultures at GNT News.

Vim would kill me over that.

Having avoided using his Unleashed Phase, he had likewise avoided passing out from E-debt and therefore had been able to make the most of the entire day. And that was why he had no problem falling asleep somewhere around nine, maybe ten, and staying asleep until the sun's rays on his face woke him up the next morning.

Pumped and ready to go, he devoured a quick breakfast, rushed through a morning shave, and finished gathering the remaining two charges on his new boots before tearing into the Orcish elite with a level of familiarity and expertise that was making each subsequent encounter feel more and more trivial. Still, he refused to become overconfident like he had early yesterday.

+110,000xp

Once more, no drop.

Zach decided to camp out the fifteen minutes and take the mob on straight away, as he was now so comfortable with the Orc's attacks that he didn't even need to cheese it with the eight-second stun. Sure, it made for a longer, more tiring fight, but he'd become so well accustomed to the Orc's attacks that he was using less energy now in dodging them. He'd even begun getting a handle on knowing exactly when and how the Orc would guard, which spared him the pain in his wrists whenever he failed to land a clean blow.

I think my stamina is getting better.

His endurance really seemed to be returning back to a level closer to where he'd been eight months ago. He still wasn't quite there just yet, but he was working himself hard and making gains—that much was for sure. Despite fighting two of these things back-to-back, he actually felt like he could take on another without stopping to rest or recharge. But he knew that would be pushing things, so he promised himself to go back and "chill" as Jimmy would say, once this thing died.

Which it did.

Zach cleaved off its head and then sheathed his blade in his scabbard even as it was dying and turning to sand.

"Whelp, that's two already, and the day just started! Heh, I'm really getting the hang of fighting these—ha-ahhh-ahhhh!"

Zach screamed. Something was wrong. Something was strange.

Something didn't make sense.

Panic burst inside of him. He didn't understand what was happening. He didn't even know if he was hurting. Was he hurt? He didn't know. There was just strangeness. Something fucked up was happening. Something that was happening so fast his mind struggled to make sense of it. It was his body. It was his ears. It was his eyes. Something just wasn't right.

Was he hurt?

He didn't even know. He didn't understand.

No. No, he wasn't hurt. But why did he feel so different? Why did he feel like…like he wasn't himself. Like something just popped. Something big. What the fuck was going on? Everything felt different. And weird. And strange.

+110,000xp

"What's happening?" he shouted, confused.

I'm not hurt. I'm okay. But what's going on? Why do…what's happening?

And then he saw it.

Level Up!

+106 str (197)

+87 dex (187)

+67 con (160)

+176 int (258)

+99 spd (160)

+22 lck (37)

Flame Arrow II Acquired!

Zach fell forward onto his knees, struggling to adapt to sensations shooting all over his body, sensations that were neither painful nor pleasurable. Just weird. Just really, really weird. His skin prickled, his muscles were going through spasm after spasm, making it feel like he had a million different heartbeats in a million different parts of his body.

And all throughout, he stared wide-eyed and in disbelief at what he saw in the air before him. It was to such an extent that, as it faded, he needed to tap himself three times on the shoulder just to confirm to himself this had even happened at all.

I felt it, he thought. Even before it popped up in the air, I felt it!

Zachys Calador: Level 29

(48277/1240000xp)

Armor Bonus: 11

197 strength

187 dexterity

160 constitution

258 intelligence

160 speed

37 luck

This was so much to take in. Too much to take in. Sure, he'd known he had a "big one" coming, but not like this. Not to this extent. This was explosive growth on a scale that was so intense his brain was struggling to understand and adapt to the changes in his body. It wasn't that he hadn't fought with stats this high before, especially when he'd been in the equipment Fylwen had given him and had been using Unleashed Phase with a level of 3. But something about the increase to his true, base stats just felt different. It changed him internally in ways he couldn't quite understand.

And that spell…

He knew it. It was a fairly common mage spell, one that required a staff, rod, spell-sword, or tome to cast…what good was that to him? He had no such weapon. And yet, with 258 points in intelligence, he could probably annihilate these mobs if only he had the ability to cast magic.

I need to get my hands on a staff or something, Zach thought. Even if it's just to pull mobs, I can blast the hell out of something with that.

Still on his knees with his palms flat on the stone floor, it took Zach a good few minutes before he felt comfortable climbing back up to his feet. And almost in the exact instant that he did, the steps leading to the second floor faded, and the elite Orc spawned right in front of him—and within aggro range, too.

"Krest zencht harganar!" it shouted as Zach was still in the process of physically standing upright.

"Oh—oh, fuck!" Zach yelped.

Caught completely off guard and totally not ready, he panicked and activated Unleashed Phase as the mob lunged at him. Luckily, it was moving much more slowly than it usually did for some reason. But having been surprised, Zach was nevertheless unable to avoid the lunging, right-handed strike of the mob's axe, which cracked him over the side of his face so hard that his head snapped in the opposite direction.

My red stone! he thought, panicking as he tasted blood in his mouth. I need to use my red stone!

He turned around and Phase Blinked in the direction of the partition, the sonic boom filling the air a moment after his arrival. Then he reached down, grabbed it, and slapped it into himself.

And it wasn't accepted.

Confused, he tried again, and all it did was cause the stone to roll into a crook that Zach wasn't able to reach inside. What the fuck was going on?

Wait, he thought as he forced himself to take a deep breath and get himself under control. Am I actually even hurt?

Zach raised his hand to his cheek where he'd been struck, and to be fair, it did sting. And when he looked at his hand, there was like a small bit of blood. Fluffles had once done worse to him when he'd tried to hug the cat after it warned him not to.

So no, he thought. Not really.

As he began to comprehend what had just happened, he realized he'd completely taken his mind off the elite Orc. Shit! It was probably right on top of him. Any second now, it'd come swinging that axe. And so, in a mad rush, Zach spun around and drew his sword—then gasped in surprise as he realized the Orc was only first charging at him. It was moving way slower. He was sure of it.

No, no, it's not! I'm just that much faster!

The Orc reached him, and upon doing so, it shouted out more Orcish words then drew back its right arm, making as if to strike. But Zach didn't need to wait for the attack, which looked slow and sluggish to his eyes. So instead, he struck faster and harder, whipping his sword across the Orc's chest and watching as the blade went in deep, causing a tremendous spray of blood. The impact even forced the Orc to lose its balance and stumble away.

82,441

table class="chapter-table"

tbody

tr

td width="312"

pHP/p

/td

td width="312"

p3,027,559/3,110,000/p

/td

/tr

tr

td width="312"

pName/p

/td

td width="312"

pLegion Portal Guardian**/p

/td

/tr

tr

td width="312"

pLevel/p

/td

td width="312"

p60/p

/td

/tr

/tbody

/table

Even as the Orc was still stumbling backwards, Zach was already following up. "Phase Slash!" he cried out, swinging his sword diagonally downwards with a whoosh through the air. A moment later, an incredibly loud, irritating, yet also reassuring sound filled the air, a high-pitched one that was like a zipper being opened only a thousand times louder. Following this sound, a distortion in the air—a ripple—sailed across the distance between Zach and the elite, and it then crashed squarely into the Orc's chest, causing it to partially cave in while sizzling, smoking blood along with what looked like fumes began to pour out of a newly created, grisly wound.

623,441

table class="chapter-table"

tbody

tr

td width="312"

pHP/p

/td

td width="312"

p2,404,118/3,110,000/p

/td

/tr

tr

td width="312"

pName/p

/td

td width="312"

pLegion Portal Guardian**/p

/td

/tr

tr

td width="312"

pLevel/p

/td

td width="312"

p60/p

/td

/tr

/tbody

/table

Wow.

table class="chapter-table"

tbody

tr

td width="312"

pUnleashed Phase Duration/p

/td

td width="312"

p13:25 Remaining/p

/td

/tr

/tbody

/table

The mob fell flat on its back. But it quickly leaned up into a sitting position and then once more it was standing. Raising both its axes, it charged at Zach—but Zach had already sent another Phase Slash its way, dealing 700,005 damage and causing it to literally lift up and be flung into the stone wall behind it, where it then fell forward and onto its face.

table class="chapter-table"

tbody

tr

td width="312"

pHP/p

/td

td width="312"

p1,704,113/3,110,000/p

/td

/tr

tr

td width="312"

pName/p

/td

td width="312"

pLegion Portal Guardian**/p

/td

/tr

tr

td width="312"

pLevel/p

/td

td width="312"

p60/p

/td

/tr

/tbody

/table

table class="chapter-table"

tbody

tr

td width="312"

pUnleashed Phase Duration/p

/td

td width="312"

p12:14 Remaining/p

/td

/tr

/tbody

/table

Even as it was pushing itself upwards on its arms. Zach, already hovering over it, turned his blade so that it pointed downwards, and he thrust his sword straight down such that it pierced the back of the Orc's skull, tore right through its face, and exited the front as about nine or ten of its sharp teeth clattered onto the stone like dropped change.

277,111

Ripping his bloody, brains-covered blade free, Zach raised it and made as if to decapitate the mob while it was in a weakened, badly damaged state. But he stopped himself, sensing a better opportunity. Rather than kill it outright, he sliced off both its hands, rendering it defenseless and "inactive," and then he unleashed a volley of fast, intense slashes into its body, one after the next like a machine gun. Slice, slice, slice, slice, slice. Over and over, he tore away the mob's HP, stopping only when it was down to just 210,544 HP.

Now, Zach struck it again, but this time gently. Very gently. He dealt just 18,221, a number that would've been unthinkable to him a few minutes ago. This further reduced the Orc's HP, but not quite low enough, so Zach attacked again, a bit harder this time. His goal was to get the Orc down to roughly 150k and stop, because that was what he estimated to be around 5% of its max HP. With a third, light strike, he came close enough.

table class="chapter-table"

tbody

tr

td width="312"

pHP/p

/td

td width="312"

p133,331/3,110,000/p

/td

/tr

tr

td width="312"

pName/p

/td

td width="312"

pLegion Portal Guardian**/p

/td

/tr

tr

td width="312"

pLevel/p

/td

td width="312"

p60/p

/td

/tr

/tbody

/table

Zach grinned at the handless, torn-apart mob, with its scalp split, its body oozing blood, and in a state that didn't quite look so "elite" anymore, did it? Now, with his foe beaten and defenseless, he activated an ability he hadn't used in quite some time.

Card Capture.

The moment of activation, the Orc's entire body just sort of "collapsed" in on itself, becoming compressed until it appeared as nothing more than a tiny, palm-sized orb of shining white light—one that lifted up into the air, sailed across the central atrium, and came to an end upon flying right into Zach's waiting, extended hand.

Gotcha.

Now, Zach looked down at his newly acquired card, which, in contrast to some of the other cards he'd captured, had a much more realistic, CGI look than the more colorful, watercolor-like art styles he'd seen previously. In this case, the illustration was of a horde of these Legion Portal Guardians charging into battle against a rival horde of Orcs, only the rival Orcs were armed with two-handed swords. Both groups of fighters had female, staff-wielding Orcs backing them up from behind.

"This has definitely been one of my more productive days," Zach quipped to himself as he turned around and bent down to pick up his three rejuvenation stones, including the red that had rolled underneath a section of the wall. Zach merely bashed it in with his fist then proceeded to reach for the stone. He paused, though, as an idea came to him.

That could work…

Zach activated Card Summon, which caused the card he was holding to revert back into the same white orb as before. It lifted out of his palm, traveled a few feet across the air, and then slammed into the floor, where it expanded, grew, and in the blink of an eye, reformed itself into the very same Legion Portal Guardian that Zach had only just captured, only this time, its name was in a warm, comforting green.

table class="chapter-table"

tbody

tr

td width="312"

pHP/p

/td

td width="312"

p3,110,000/3,110,000/p

/td

/tr

tr

td width="312"

pName/p

/td

td width="312"

pLegion Portal Guardian**/p

/td

/tr

tr

td width="312"

pLevel/p

/td

td width="312"

p60/p

/td

/tr

/tbody

/table

"Guess you play for my team now, buddy," Zach said to it.

I wonder what Angelica would do if I took this thing out in her inn, he mused as the Orcish elite's blades dripped an endless supply of blood. Actually, did the blood really stain whatever it dripped on? Or was it just an "effect" like some of the weapons he'd seen the adventurers using? On his very first trip to Angelica's, he recalled seeing an adventurer with a staff that constantly fired off little bees or wasps or some kind of insect, but they would vanish after flying a certain distance away.

It doesn't, he realized as he stared at the spot in which the mob spawned. There was no blood there. There was blood everywhere else, sure, as Zach had carved the shit out of this mob, but there wasn't any in the immediate spawning location.

To test this, Zach placed his hand, palm up, right beneath one of the mob's axes, and though he could feel the blood dripping onto his hand, it vanished instantly without a trace upon contact. It was actually kind of cool.

I want to turn that other mob upstairs into a card, too, he thought.

Then he immediately reconsidered, as very, very weird impulses and questions swirled around his head, the kind that Rian would be better off wondering about, not him. That mob was legitimately hot. And all alone on this sky island, with a non-sentient thing that technically wasn't biological, would it really be cheating if he just took the tiniest, tiniest peep at what she looked like when not wearing her—

Don't even think about it, he warned himself. That's weird! Kal would never be okay with that.

Zach bopped himself over his own head in an attempt to rid his mind of the wicked thoughts, such as him wondering if, in the entire history of Galterra, anyone with the rare Card Capture ability had ever tried screwing one of their cards. Or just someone with a humanoid pet summon.

There's literally zero chance it hasn't happened, he thought. It's not even a question. People being People, there's no way someone hasn't done it.

Making himself uncomfortable with his own thoughts, Zach at last moved on from the topic and instead turned his mind towards thoughts of dinner and rest.

As the light level began to plummet and the sun set in the sky, Zach stuffed his three rejuvenation stones into the Orc's cloth tunic that it wore, and then he made his way back to his camp with the elite mob following behind him. He was feeling great. And why? Because, after such a long, soul-crushing wait, he'd finally, finally had another good level up.

Maybe too good.