We stepped into the stone kitchen and began checking out the basic functions provided. The entire room was a monotone gray, but that was to be expected because it was only the basic version. Just as advertised, there was a coal oven built into the side of the wall, and a stove wide enough to cook two full pizzas side by side.

Stone pantry shelves lined the walls, and at the end of the room was a particularly interesting fixture. It was a magic slate refrigerator that emitted a cold chill when the door was opened, that had enough room to keep a few small items refrigerated. On the bottom of the slate refrigerator was a larger freezer compartment. Not bad for a sixty soul purchase.

I took the fish I caught earlier out from my inventory and placed it on the slab countertop. Wow, there were even drawers here with kitchen cutlery too… I was beginning to become very impressed with the dimension shop.

After gutting the fish, seasoning it, and putting it in the oven to bake with Rosalia’s help, I closed the lid. “So, tell me about it. How’s the new class?”

Rosalia beamed at me proudly. “It’s wonderful. I have the [Reraise] ability now.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a buff that gives you another life if you die. The cooldown is long though, and it costs a lot of holy power,” Rosalia explained. “After I use it, I have to rejuvenate my holy power by bathing. The higher quality the bath, the faster I rejuvenate my holy power.”

“My heals are 20% stronger now and with longer range because of Angel of Luxuria’s passive [Luxurious Heal], and I can use offensive light magic too.”

Rosalia checked the oven to see if the fish was cooking well, then continued. Just how many perks did this girl get?

“And I can hover.”

“Pardon? Hover?”

“Yep. Look.”

Rosalia floated gracefully off the ground, her blonde hair swaying almost as if she was moving in low gravity. She effortlessly touched the stone ceiling with one hand and began her descent.

“Isn’t this so cool?” she said while still in mid air.

I was thoroughly impressed. “That’s insane… how high can you go?”

“High enough,” Rosalia answered. “I think I’ll be out of range of that monster’s attacks.”

“I’ll count on you for heals then. And sling some light magic if you can…. Wow, do you smell that?”

I took the fish out of the oven, just as it was at its peak crispiness without getting burnt. As the saying went, an empty stomach is the best chef. Using just two pairs of chopsticks, we finished the whole fish in our famished state, and began planning for our break out from the crevice.

“Do you think you can hold your own against them if I cast reraise on you and give you some long range support?” Rosalia asked.

I shook my head. “I’m not sure. I’d have to be very careful not to get hit. Did Meat Shield tell you about my stat distribution?”

“She didn’t.”

“Here, look.”

Health 856 Strength 931 Physical Defense 281 Magic Resistance 999 Vitality 259 Intelligence 1021 Dexterity 1205 Mana 1202 Wisdom 30 Golemancy 530

Rosalia scanned down my status screen with a slightly confused look on her face. “Why are your defenses so low? And your intelligence is higher than mine!”

“My class has inconsistent growths. So my physical defense and vitality are particularly low,” I began. I quickly explained to her my situation, and included that there were stat boosting achievements. “So I’m not sure if I can tank too many hits, even with reraise. It’s best if we find a way to fight those spinosauruses that doesn’t endanger us.”

“Hmm….. if you can lure them into range, I can hit them with light magic.”

At the mention of luring, an idea struck me. “Let’s expand upon that idea. I think I have a plan.”

------------

The offices at Eclipse headquarters were empty today, as most of the staff was at an investment bank preparing for an IPO of the company’s healthcare subsidiary.

With a cigarette in his mouth, Harden walked down the hall with an irregular gait, stopping in front of an office that had the plaque Scott, Engineering Head written across it. He knocked on the door twice. “Scott, it’s me.”

A gruff voice replied from within the office. “Come in.”

Harden walked into the office and leaned onto the bookshelf, puffing his cigarette.

“You know I hate smoke,” Scott said with a grimace on his face, waving his hand in front of his nose.

Ignoring the comment, Harden puffed out a plume of smoke and asked a question. “What do you think?”

“What do I think about what?”

“About the player count. We’re down to under a billion now worldwide. This game is too hard. Not enough newbie protections. Possibly the worst designed game of all time. Blah blah blah,” Harden recanted in a mocking voice, before taking another drag from his cigarette.

Scott started laughing. “Oh, that? Just ignore them. We have our mission to focus on. The player base has stabilized now, and I don’t even know how we got so many players to join up in the first place.”

Harden smiled devilishly. “Well, she did help a lot in that respect. Speaking of which, have you seen her around recently?”

“Nope, not for a while now. Then again, she must be busy with something. Not something for us to think about,” Scott replied. “By the way, the Hidden Challenge should be coming up soon.”

Harden’s eyebrow raised up. “Now that’s some good news.”

“Yep. I’ve already spread out the tickets and invitations. It’s just a question of when the player base will discover them.”

--------------

Keeping a low profile, I slowly walked towards the nest with my adamantite poleaxe tightly gripped, my hands clammy in a nervous sweat as I approached the injured juvenile. Its labored breath and glazed over eyes showed infection was starting to take a toll on its health.

As humans, we take technologically advanced healthcare for granted, but animals had few defenses against these sorts of biological attacks outside of their own immune systems. With that in mind, I chose a hit-and-run approach to this battle, wasting some time in exchange for a much safer approach.

After careful observation of the spinosaurus’s behavior, I noticed that the adult spinosauruses guarded the nest one at a time while the other partner swam out for fish. However, the nest guarding mate would leave, venturing into the dense forest for several minutes every so often to mark territory with their scent and feces.

The adult spinosaurus guarding the nest left just a moment ago to scent mark its territory. Seizing the opportunity, I crept even closer forward towards the injured juvenile alone in the nest. Although the juvenile could be considered very small per se compared to its fully grown parents, compared to a human, it was still formidably sized. This particular one was fever stricken and immobilized from the wounds it received yesterday.

“Restrain.”

The juvenile yelped in confusion, flailing as the black rope constricted around its neck.

Restrain has risen to level 3.

I raised my poleaxe and swung down.

[116 damage, critical hit!]

And again.

[118 damage critical hit!]

The juvenile let out one last anguished cry as I dealt a fatal blow to its exposed neck. I didn’t feel a single bit remorseful, knowing full well that this creature could’ve easily bitten me in half if I didn’t restrain it.

I activated Heart Ripper and plunged it into the juvenile’s chest, making sure to soak in the blood. It made me a bit squeamish to do something this barbaric, but I grit my teeth.

You have slain Juvenile Spinosaurus.

You have gained 7 souls.

You have obtained small Spinosaurus Tooth.

Extracting my bloodied hand from the juvenile spinosaurus carcass, I activated dimension ripper for just a moment to clean off my hand. Now, it was time to drag off the corpse to near the gap, so Rosalia and I could fire at the adult when it came to check. We decided that this kind of guerrilla warfare was our best shot at beating the adult spinosauruses, since Luxuria’s Hot Spring let us heal our wounds indefinitely.

To my left, the ferns began to shake. The adult and juvenile were back way earlier than planned. With an earth shattering roar, the adult emerged from between the ferns and burst into the shore at a thundering speed. It must have heard the juvenile’s cries and decided to head back.

Well, that plan didn’t work. I dropped the tail of the dead juvenile and ran straight for the gap.

“Spoon, watch out!” Rosalia cried from her prone position just a few feet outside of the gap.

SPLASH.

To my right, the other adult spinosaurus emerged from the water. So much for the bait plan.

Defying my expectations, it headed straight for the gap. Not even for Rosalia, but for the gap itself. These damn animals were smarter than they appeared.

Rosalia stood up and began hovering, but she wasn’t gaining elevation fast enough. I telekinetically ordered love whip to lash at the spinosaurus near her, aiming for the eyes to distract it.

“Summon cat!” I shouted. Meat Shield appeared by my side.

“Master, I’m not so sure about this…” Meat Shield said while taking in the situation unfolding in front of us.

“Try to distract the adults! Buy Rosalia some time!” I shouted.

The male spinosaurus from the water stood directly in front of the rock crevice, cutting off my retreat path, as the female spinosaurus snapped its jaws while lumbering towards Rosalia. Meanwhile, the surviving juvenile headed to the carcass of its sibling and sniffed it curiously, before leaning down and taking a bite. These things were opportunistic cannibals.

Right before the female could reach Rosalia, I leapt into her path and threw the poleaxe towards its legs, making it stumble in the sand. I closed the distance and activated dimension ripper, swiping at the side of the female’s belly. My left hand penetrated its hide with an awful squelching sound as I gruesomely tore off two inches of flesh from the animal’s flank. The female spinosaurus roared in pain as it coiled around to face me. The male, watching the fight from in front of the gap, did not move from its position. It seemed intent on closing off my escape route. Meat Shield appeared in front of it for a split second to spit out a ball of flame, before disappearing back into a portal.

Rosalia was now high enough in the air that the adult spinosauruses would have to jump to reach her. Her white robes fluttered in the air majestically as she held up her pendant and began to cast buffs.

You have gained status [Reraise].

Your physical defense has increased by 100.

Your magic resistance has increased by 100.

Your vitality has increased by 100.

That was my signal to go. With a battle cry, I ran towards the female spinosaurus and swung at it with my adamantite poleaxe. I telekinetically directed love whip to assault the female spinosaurus’s head.

[77 damage]

[24 damage]

With my glowing black left arm, I tore another hunk of flesh off the spinosaurus’s belly, and then targeted the vulnerable hole in its hide with a thrust from my poleaxe.

[118 damage, critical hit!]

The female spinosaurus yelped in pain and bit at me, aiming wildly because the whip was in front of her face.

Telekinetic control has risen to level 2.

The male spinosaurus sensed that its mate was in trouble, and charged at me with an open jaw.

SHWOOON.

A bolt of light shot down from a complex magic circle formed in front of Rosalia, smiting the male spinosaurus on the top of its body and leaving a sizzling, blackened mark. The male spinosaurus stumbled, then looked back at the flying clerical angel and let loose a deafening roar. Rosalia motioned with her right hand, as another magic circle appeared in front of her. She would need time to cast her next spell. I really wanted to praise her aim; it wasn’t easy to hit a spell from that angle and distance.

The female spinosaurus snapped at me again, raking her teeth over my torso.

[-72 health]

With all the resistances I got from various buffs and achievements, I could tank a few indirect hits. I slid under its belly and swiped at its vulnerable underbelly, then performed a one handed stab with the poleaxe. The weakness to a long, two handed weapon was in these scrappy fights at extreme close range. At this range I wished I had a dagger or sword to switch to.

Mana: 940/1204

Mana: 942/1204

Luckily, tearing through soft flesh was dimension ripper’s specialty. I never thought I’d see the day where dimension ripper outscaled thunderbolt, but it happened sooner than I expected. And my mana regen was very respectable at this level.

Plunging my black shrouded left hand in again, I tore through the fat layer of the female spinosaurus’s belly as it shrieked in pain. The male spinosaurus lunged towards me with its jaw unhinged, leaving me with no time to dodge.

Shadow.

My body burst into a dark haze and wisped away from the front teeth that clamped shut dangerously close to my head.