Congratulations! Basecrest City Guard Suit’s ability, [Snap] has leveled up from Foundation - 6 to Foundation - 7.

  Congratulations! Grace has increased from 37 to 40.

  The suit’s level up happened before my fight, so the increase to Grace was the only one I’d earned, even after killing over a hundred monsters. As I’d hoped, the System counted ranged weapon fire as Grace-related experience. It usually was, in games. And thanks to my Soul Seed and suit, its growth was as spectacular as ever.

  Which suited me just fine—that synergized with my suit’s strengths—but it did highlight a problem. As awe-inspiring as that barrage of fire was, Initializer likely didn’t gain anything from it. None of the pebbles had been Initialized.

  Nor could I just enchant my ammo willy-nilly. While I’m sure some of the pebbles would’ve broken up on impact, I was willing to bet several hundred hadn’t. Even if I did have a vast enough Essence reserve to Initialize them all, I’d be stuck until I leveled up.

  The Accelerated Reclaim ability I’d passed up came to mind, though that only allowed me to reclaim once a day. Not enough for the successive fights I was bound to run into inside a Trial or Dungeon.

  That was alright. I already had Initialized weapons—I’d use those on high-value targets, and they were both large enough and few enough that I’d have a good chance of picking them up. Especially if my Grace, and thus, my speed, continued to increase as it did.

  Rather, what I needed now was to replenish my stock of Uninitialized stuff.

  “You’re grinning,” Aerion said, frowning. “It’s weird. Why are you grinning?”

  “Because I’ve got a feeling my offensive potential just skyrocketed, that’s why.”

  Ignoring the still-shocked expressions on my companions’ faces, I made my way to the edge of the island we were standing on, to the slow-moving lava that formed rivers and ponds.

  I crouched down, ignoring the scorching heat that only amped up the closer I got. My boots wouldn’t last long on ground this hot, and the only reason my feet weren’t roasting was thanks to my Vigor stat.

  The rocks here glowed red-hot—those were what I was after.

  Dumping out the remainder of the pebbles and rocks in my inventory, I began to refill it with new, sizzling replacements.

  Crucially, I didn’t actually have to touch what I put inside my inventory. I’d learned that when experimenting with Aerion. It must’ve been another upgrade that came with my rank up—as long as I was within a foot or so of the object, I could just suck it into the extradimensional space, and since time was frozen in there, my rocks would stay hot forever.

  Moreover, the stuff in my inventory didn’t interact with each other. Probably another artifact of the frozen time, but I could put Aerion inside and then stuff the remaining space full of scorching rocks, and she wouldn’t feel it. It was like there was an impenetrable barrier between every object inside.

  Quite handy, since that meant I didn’t have to micromanage organizing things in there at all.

  Walking along our island, I quickly filled the space with every hot pebble I could find. I then jumped to the next island and repeated the process, eventually recouping my thousand projectiles. I included a handful of larger stones too, though I stopped at fist-sized. Anything heavier and there wouldn’t be enough speed to do real damage. Not to mention the weight. Rogar’s porta-forge weighed around fifty pounds on its own.

  Given the value of forging stuff in Trials, Axians had developed some amazingly portable forges, but it still took up over half of my inventory capacity. Thirty pounds wasn’t a whole lot of budget.

  I had around five pounds left. I stared at the red-hot lava nearby. I couldn’t know how quickly my inventory would spew lava, or what its weight was, but there was only one way to find out.

  Backing up, I took a running jump, skimming as low as I dared over the river of lava separating my mini-island from the next. It was about ten feet, and without [Snap], I might not have cleared it, even with my stats. As it was, I made it with ease, scooping the lava beneath me as I rushed over. Not once did any part of my body come into contact with the insanely hot rock.

  Mentally inspecting my inventory after I landed, I found I had scooped a surprisingly decent amount. I supposed the stuff was less dense than solid rock, so that made sense.

  Only question was…

  “What do you say we get a move on?” Richard asked… Right before I spewed a molten firehose into the air.

  If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  The arc only went a handful of feet before flopping down, forcing me to jump back to avoid the spray. It was a good thing I’d fired it away from the group.

  That was… limitedly useful. Good for slopping off the face of any nearby bosses… But I wasn’t quite done.

  I’d fired half of what I had in that volley. This time, I focused, thinking of a tiny jet of lava, erupting from my inventory like a laser.

  It worked, and this time, the jet of superheated liquid rock fired in a straight beam several dozen feet before dissipating. While it wasn’t quite as fast as my rocks, I had no doubt a beam of lava would mess up anyone’s day.

  I jumped back to my previous island, topping up my lava reserves. Then I turned to Richard, smiling. “Now I’m ready.”

  The look of absolute terror my friends had all given me just minutes earlier was back.

  For some inexplicable reason, my little display fired Aerion up to the point where she engaged [Reave] on every enemy we came across after that, whether it was a single Ash Golem or a whole horde of Lava Leapers.

  Even Richard had taken her side, selectively bursting or weakening the hearts of her foes, while leaving mine untouched. I took it as a sign of his trust in my skills, and not as Richard and Aerion forming a coalition against me. Definitely not at all. Especially not when I racked up kills in quick succession, causing the two to look at me weird.

  The hell was I supposed to do? Suppress my new, awesome superpowers for their benefit?

  No way.

  Besides, my new toys had their limits. The lava jets were useless against the Ash Golems, and only limitedly effective against the Leapers. The things were made of lava rock—basically basalt—and were nearly immune to heat. Even worse, my lava jets just splattered on their armored bodies, ricocheting every direction. I nearly got lava on Philip when it bounced off, whizzing by his helmet.

  I had Philip and Rogar stay especially far from the battle after that.

  Clearly, not the most effective weapon against the locals here. I couldn’t wait to get to floor six and spray my jets on those goblin fuckers. Of course, I wouldn’t be able to replenish my ammo after leaving this floor, so I’d have to conserve it.

  Swapping out for an [Uncommon] warhammer I picked up in town, I activated [Snap] the moment before I smashed the Ash Golem’s leg with all of my strength, sending cracks spreading through the monster’s whole body. I’d bought a pair of the weapons after we decided to delve the Trial, and I was glad I did.

  A followup strike from Aerion was enough to shatter it, bursting it into a hundred pieces of black glass that crumbled down.

  Aerion eyed my hammer with suspicion.

  “I’ve got another, just waiting to be used, you know?” I said, hoping she’d bite.

  “Never,” Aerion said the moment [Reave] deactivated. “Can you imagine what everyone would say if word got out an elf was fighting with a hammer?” She said, as if it were the most absurd thing in the world.

  “Uh, they’d call you smart and resourceful? Why would you abuse Aurora like that?”

  Swords were fundamentally not designed to smash through rock. It was a good thing we’d had Rogar resharpen Aurora before coming in. Its Mythril construction meant it could take a beating that would render most swords useless, but with Aerion’s ridiculous strength, it was a wonder how the thing hadn’t fallen apart already.

  It took a special weapon to hold up to the abuse our strength put them through. Even my [Uncommon] warhammer might not last through the Trial unless I babied it. Or Initialized it, once I had enough Essence.

  “I would be a laughingstock!” she spat, her ears turning red. “Besides, I’m not trained in that barbaric fighting style. Weapons like that are more suitable for someone like Dominion’s Champion.”

  Seriously? Why was she bringing Eskil up, of all people? I was sorely tempted to say that there weren’t many things more barbaric than a berserker on the battlefield, but held my tongue.

  Instead, something else slipped out. Something I hadn’t meant to say. Something much worse.

  “Ah yes, your lover.”

  Oh… shit. I realized I’d fucked up the instant the words were out of my mouth, but it was too late. The damage was done.

  Aerion glowered at me with a look of utter disgust. Disgust… and hurt. “If that is what you think, then I’ve nothing to say to you.”

  “Wait! Aerion! I didn’t mean—”

  She spun on her heel and stormed off.

  “Great going, Greg,” I muttered, glancing awkwardly at our companions. They were thankfully too far to hear our spat above the volcanic eruptions and the popping of the lava, but it was obvious to anyone with eyes that I’d pissed her off.

  Why couldn’t she just be more rational about this? We’d have cleared this floor by now if she just used the damned hammer.

  “Everything alright?” Richard asked, looking at Aerion worriedly.

  “Just a… disagreement,” I said with a sigh, waving away his concern. “Aerion says we’re nearly at the shortcut that’ll take us to the next floor. I don’t know about you, but I’m itching to get out of this sweatshop.”

  We’d cleared the floor in the span of a couple of hours, and we’d absolutely wiped the floor with our enemies. It hadn’t even been close.

  I cracked my neck. I was looking forward to doing the same on Floor 3, and then every floor above that. And somehow, somewhere in all of that, I'd have to apologize to Aerion.