Claire put her hand on Ian’s dorm room pad, and the door activated. Grabbing his arm, she gently guided him inside before palming the pad on the wall. The door closed with a swish, and the light let them know the room was secure.

  “Uh, why do you—” Ian began before Claire cut him off.

  “Remove your skill.”

  “Sure, one sec, but why—”

  “Remove your skill,” Claire repeated in a low voice, cutting him off again. “Now.”

  Ian didn’t exactly appreciate her tone, but did as he was told.

  As the black mist vanished, Claire reached up and gently grabbed the sides of his head. She tilted it down so she could see his eyes and began moving her head back and forth. He followed her eyes with his. She held him still for a moment as her eyes went green. Her expression softened as she sighed and released him.

  “You scared the shit out of me, Ian. The blood was almost spurting out of your arm, and you were visibly slowing as the fight came to an end. The chances of a boss having an inherent skill at your level are extremely low, but it does happen. It usually results in severe injuries, if not the full loss of the party if they were already pushing their boundaries. There’s a reason very few parties actually clear dungeon bosses until the fight becomes relatively trivial to them.

  “This isn’t a game. People die all the time, and it is nearly always from getting in over their heads.”

  Ian just nodded. With the concerned look on her face, he didn’t trust himself not to say something stupid. He wanted to push the limits of his capabilities, but he also didn’t want to die. The last couple of weeks had given him a new outlook on life. He had friends and a future. His sister was now here with him, and he felt the need to push himself to make sure she had the best stats available when she started running the dungeon.

  “Sorry, Claire,” he said after a moment of silence. “I just…I want to be strong and level quickly. I feel that I need to help Ash as much as possible, and the best way to do that is to gain as much power as I can.”

  “I know, which is why I’ve been working on a plan you can follow to help,” she said, giving him a small smile. “But first, we need to get this armor off, and you need to hop in a shower.”

  She reached over and put her hand on the buckle, only to have it come away sticky.

  “Be careful to not get anything on my clothes. I don’t want to have to leave you alone to head back to my room to shower. It always shocks me how much blood the human body actually has…”

  Ian chuckled as he started stripping the armor off and placing it on the rack with Claire’s help. He was standing in a pair of boxers and an undershirt—with half of the shirt completely soaked in blood. He looked over and found Claire’s hands were liberally coated as well.

  “Go wash your hands off really quickly,” Ian said. “I have the feeling the cleaning crew is gonna freak if we leave bloody hand-prints all over the place.”

  Claire snorted before quickly running into the bathroom to wash her hands. Ian heard the shower kick on a moment later before she came out.

  “Shower and a towel are ready for you. I’ll be right out here if you need anything.”

  Ian felt a little uncomfortable having Claire take care of him like she was, but tried to shrug it off. He managed to peel his bloody clothes off and toss them into the washing machine. He took a quick, yet thorough shower before drying himself off and starting the laundry. He had the feeling he was going to need to throw the shirt away, but he would at least give it a chance.

  Ian hadn’t thought to bring any clothes in with him, so he wrapped his towel around himself and walked back out into the other room. Claire was sitting on his sofa, watching a replay from his time in the dungeon earlier.

  “Hurry up and get dressed while I’m distracted,” she said as he walked behind her towards his closet. “I figured you wouldn’t appreciate me going through your clothes to set out something for you to wear. You’re definitely attractive, but I’ll try to hold myself back from peeking…too much.”

  Ian chuckled, but also noted she kept herself facing away from him as he went to his walk-in closet. Claire continued to do a lot for him, and she was always there when he needed her. It was almost unnerving for him, like he was waiting for the pendulum to swing.

  Ian finished getting dressed and walked over to sit next to Claire, carrying his shoes.

  “She really is amazing, isn’t she?” Claire said, looking at the screen.

  Lifting his head from the task at hand, he watched Jen firing arrow after arrow into the salamander, while constantly moving to give Ian room to maneuver. He hadn’t even realized they had been so close to each other so many times, as he had to be completely focused on fighting off the boss.

  Claire grabbed the tablet that controlled the screen and paused it. She selected the kobold frozen on the screen with its spear in mid-thrust.

  Ian was surprised when a model of the creature was placed on the screen center and its stats and skills were listed to the side.

  “A fucking double!” she hissed after reading its skills. “It had the Blink Strike active ability and the Dexterity inherent skills. No wonder it kept up with you! It outclassed you by at least a couple of hundred points in dexterity. This also explains why you got two levels, and she got three when it died. Even for a boss, that seemed a little bit too much without a multiplier.”

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  She resumed the replay, and they watched as Jen eventually killed the wounded salamander just in time to turn and see Ian and the Kobold staring each other down. She hadn’t even hesitated before she notched an arrow and drew. Before the first one had reached its target, she was already sending the second.

  Ian was shocked by how fast the final moments were. It had felt like an eternity while he was there, but watching it without the adrenaline rushing through him showcased how fast the fight had actually been.

  “It is really amazing she was able to pull off those shots with her gear,” Claire said while nodding. “Those arrows only penetrated that salamander because of the buff you gave her. Honestly, the only reason she was able to keep up during the dungeon was thanks to that. You are really too much at this level.”

  Claire stood up and looked over at him, “I already evaluated you with my skill, so we should probably head over there and get the loot cataloged. I can accept it for the sale and have it transferred to your accounts.

  “Sounds good. I also promised Glade a conversation about my skills.”

  “You trust her that much?” Claire said, a little surprised as they headed to the door.

  “She’s the only person I trust as much as I do you,” Ian said with a smirk before activating his skill.

  “Good answer.”

  *~*~*

  “A magical pair of hardened leather bracers and a reddish-brown scaled cloak, huh?” Jen said, looking at the two drops they had received from the dungeon bosses.

  “Yup. Claire had them evaluated, and they are both items for a ranged, physical damage dealer.” Ian said, causing Jen’s eyes to widen as she looked at him.

  “What do they do?”

  “Well, Adventurer Glade—”

  “Please, call me Jen, Keeper. I’ve been thinking about putting away my alias for a while now, and I think I can finally stop hiding my name now that I’m a full-time adventurer,” Jen said with a smile. “Besides, all of my friends call me Jen, and any friend of Ian’s is a friend of mine.”

  Claire gave her a warm smile.

  “Then please call me Claire. I have the feeling we are going to be around each other for a long time, so being friends is probably for the best.

  “But let’s cover the items really quickly. The bracers are hardened salamander leather that temporarily strengthens arrows as they are fired and increases agility by 135 points. It allows the wearer to utilize lower-quality arrows when hunting tougher enemies.

  “That would have been amazing during today’s fight,” Jen said, tracing her finger across the scale pattern. “Half of my shots shattered because of the crappy arrows I was using.”

  “Indeed,” Claire said before moving her hand to point at the cloak. “The back piece increases agility by 275 and lowers the chance of enemies targeting you in battle based on your distance. The farther the better. Which may not seem great right now, but it’s amazing during extended boss fights against larger monsters that you hit a lot.

  “They also both increase in armor rating as your endurance and agility goes up. They seem to cap out around the 4,300 level range. It’s hard to tell, though, as it is a combination of both, instead of just a single stat like most weapons. They will be able to go even higher once more pieces of the set are collected, but they will still be replaceable by other pieces as you level since their growth will fall behind high-end pieces in those level ranges.”

  Jen just stared dumbfounded at the items as Ian watched. She turned to Ian with wide eyes.

  “I don’t know which one I want,” she said after a moment.

  Ian rolled his eyes before he started laughing.

  “This is a big decision, Ian. It’s not funny,” she said, lightly punching him in the arm. “Either of these items can make a big difference for me over the next few years. I wouldn’t have to replace it for a long, long time.”

  “Why choose just one? Take both. It’s not like I will get any use out of either of them.” Ian said, still chuckling.

  “I wouldn’t dare,” Jen shot back, completely serious. “These items are worth tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. Don’t get me wrong, we both made a few grand today after splitting the other loot, but these types of drops could set you up for years. Not only that, but your sister could also use one.”

  Ian just shrugged, “I’ll help my sister get gear when it's time. She can’t even utilize this stuff yet. Her level is too low for her mana to activate it.

  “You, however, not only earned those pieces by fighting the boss with me today, but someone who I suspect spent a year and a half giving me a portion of her paycheck when I was destitute and starving.”

  “You worked for that money,” Jen whispered, turning her face away from him.

  He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and gave her a side hug.

  “You helped me when I needed it, so let me help you now,” Ian whispered. “Besides, you saved my life in there, and I want to make sure my best friend has the best protection when I’m not around to return the favor.”

  Jen reached up and placed her hand on his shoulder and leaned her head into it. “Thank you, Ian. You’re one of my best friends, too.”

  They gave each other one final squeeze before separating and leaning back to their own sides of the sofa.

  “You two probably shouldn’t hug like that in public,” Claire said with a smirk. “After today, the rumor mills say that you two are dating, and people are even betting on the name of your first child. The most common ones are Adam if it’s a boy and Lilly if it’s a girl.”

  “Oh my go…” Jen said before putting both hands to her face and taking a deep breath. “I’d think you were joking, but I’ve been keeping up with the media on our boy Ian here, and I can totally see that being tomorrows cover story.”

  “Also, Jen, the AO received a message from a couple of weapon developers requesting to sponsor you. One wants you to do commercials, but the other just wants you to have their logo at the bottom of your stream. The first wants to give you a 30% discount on all their goods, while the second wants to supply you with their arrows for free and have you test new archery products for them.”

  Jen blinked, “What? I didn’t see anything like that pop up while I was in my room.”

  “Well, I’m only the Keeper of your temporary team, but I had them diverted to me so I could help you out.”

  Jen smiled before folding her hands and putting them in her lap. “I can’t really accept either. I won’t be able to perform like this consistently. Ian’s buff is powerful, and even with both of these items, I will still be short on many of the stats needed for me to move like I did today.”

  “The buff isn’t going anywhere, Jen. It is on you until I take it off,” Ian said with a smile. “And I don’t have any reason to do that. I do wonder if you will get the experience bonus when you dive without me, though.

  “Hold your horses,” Ian quickly said as she looked at him. “I see the million questions in your eyes. How about Claire and I go over all my skills with you at length before we grab food?”

  “Please!” Jen replied with an excited smile.

  “After the skills, we need to go over the plan for your continued development and the next dungeon you should be tackling,” Claire added, looking pointedly at Ian. “My mother messaged me earlier and asked me to come home for a couple of days. I want to make sure you are set for the time I’ll be gone.”

  Ian caught the look Claire gave him when she mentioned her mother. Nodding, Ian began to explain his skills to Jen.