"Brother, can you beat Luke if you fought against him?" Sunny asked with an innocent look on her face as she sat on the couch.

"That... well he can definitely not beat me but I also can't beat him at the moment" Roy replied while scratching his head.

"What do you mean? Don't you have an ability too?" Sunny asked again.

Roy's men perked up with what he just said as they listened in to the conversation between the siblings. They were overjoyed when they found out that their young boss obtained an ability but the battle earlier between Luke and the trolls truly opened their eyes in what an ability can do so they wondered how their young boss would do in a match against Luke.

"Well I don't really know what his abilities are called but from the battle earlier, I can tell that it's only effective in close combat. My ability is perfect for 2 things, escaping from my enemies and catching up to enemies. You see, my ability doesn't really deal any damage to anyone, but what it does is it restricts everyone but mine's movement. So Luke can't get close to me so his abilities become useless but I can't get close to him either so I can't really beat him in a head on fight, unless of course I can hit him from a distance but he might also be able to find a way to cover that weakness of his"

Sunny and the other men had a look of understanding on their faces as they realized that Luke wasn't actually that invincible in a fight as they thought. Disrupting their talk, Luke entered the room with his hair wet from the shower.

"Yo. Were you guys talking about me? I'm amazing eh?" Luke asked with a cheeky smile.

Sunny rolled her eyes at him and said, "Oh please, my brother just said that you can't beat him in a fight"

Luke had a look of surprise for a moment but smiled soon afterwards then sat beside Sunny on the couch and said "Well yeah, his Frozen Sigil can truly stop me from landing a single hit on him but what if I manage to get myself a range weapon? Yeah he can keep me at a certain distance but it won't really be that large that I won't be able to hit him with a range weapon"

"Hmph! Then my brother could also get himself a range weapon!" Sunny replied with a pout.

Luke shrugged at her and said "Well anyway, even if I don't manage to get myself a range weapon, my body is gradually getting stronger the more monsters I kill so eventually his Frozen Sigil would be useless against me"

Roy's eyes widened hearing what Luke said and shouted, "WHAT?! What do you mean?!".

"Jesus Christ Roy, lower your voice down a notch will ya? Anyhow It's not like I didn't plan on telling you guys about it. By the way, can we get some food around here? I'm hungry again after the fight earlier" Luke said so as if he owned the place.

Roy signaled his men to grab some food and inquired again about what Luke said a while ago as he sat back down, "Sorry about that, but seriously though, we get stronger the more monsters we kill?" If it was true, he'd be heading out to hunt some monsters as soon possible! He'll also let his men kill along with him so that he'll have a strong force of his own that could be helpful to his family.

Luke had a smirk on his face and said, "Look at you getting all excited as if it's Christmas, well yeah you do get stronger after killing a certain amount of monsters. It won't be a significant increase in strength but you can definitely sense the improvemnts in your body. In DotA, you level up after killing some creeps, which by the way is what we call the monsters, or after killing enemy heroes. Leveling up means an increase in stats like Agility, Strength and Intelligence, it also means that you can upgrade a skill of -- wait"

Luke suddenly realized something; he wasn't able to upgrade an ability of his after leveling up once he wiped out those kobolds! He was wondering how he's supposed to do that when a window appeared in front of him.

You have 1 ability point available, would you like to assign it now? Yes

Luke felt like fainting after the window appeared, 'Dammit! So this window apppears only when I look for it? Why won't you appear after I level up?! People forget things sometimes you know!' he complained in his mind as he frowned but he still clicked 'Yes' anyway and a new window appeared after the first one disappeared.

lvl. 1 Counter Helix lvl. 1 Reactive Armor

Sunny was puzzled and was about to scold Luke for stopping in the middle of his explanation when her brother stopped her from doing so. Roy saw Luke staring at something in front of him with a frown so he figured that a window appeared.

Luke was contemplating on which ability to upgrade as both of them are important for him. With Counter Helix as his offensive ability and Reactive Armor as his defensive ability, he was contemplating whether he should prioritize upgrading his offense or defense!

If he chose Counter Helix then he'll be able to kill off creeps faster and thus level up faster but if he chose Reactive Armor, he'll be able to fight against more creeps while all alone and his life won't be in any form of danger while fighting against level of creeps he has been fighting.

As much as he wanted to grow stronger, he's quite a coward at heart and he sure as hell didn't want to die anytime soon! 'So what if It'll take me longer to level up? Since i'm low-levelled at the moment then I don't need to kill that many creeps before I level up again! Only then will I upgrade Counter Helix, so Reactive Armor it is!' he decided in his mind as he clicked on 'Reactive Armor' and 2 windows appeared, replacing the other one.

You have upgraded Reactive Armor to lvl. 2! Max Stacks: 5 -> 10 Armor Bonus per Stack: 1 -> 1.2 Health Regen Bonus per Stack: 1 -> 1.15 Stack Duration: 10 -> 13

Luke had a satisfied look on his face as he sat down and admired his newly upgraded ability but hearing a light cough beside him, he turned and saw Sunny glaring at him with a pout and he couldn't help but think about how she still looked so pretty even when she's angry!

"Ah - Sorry about that. hehehe. Got sidetracked for a while. Earlier, I was about to say that every level up meant an upgrade to one of your abilities when I realized that I haven't upgraded any ability of mine yet" he said with a foolish grin on his face.

"Is that so? Then what were you doing a while ago was upgrading an ability of yours? what ability did you upgrade?" Sunny asked to which Roy got worried since he himself never even asked Luke about his abilities.

Luke didn't mind the question at all since DotA abilities would soon be known by everyone anyway and he always noticed how Roy seemed to be always holding himself back in asking about his abilities so he answered truthfully. "Well I have two abilities, the first ability I obtained after wiping out a kobold camp in Mt. Agad-Agad is called Counter Helix, do you both remember in the fight earlier when I suddenly turned into a blur then the trolls surrounding me suddenly all died? That was Counter Helix"

The siblings' eyes shone brightly after remembering what Luke did earlier in the battle, Counter Helix is such a strong ability! They began staring at Luke as if he was some sort of War God when Luke embarrassedly stopped them.

"You guys, Counter Helix may be strong but it has a requirement where I need to be taking hits from enemies and there's only a 20% chance of it activating too, do you wanna be a punching bag for monsters to know what it feels like? and its damage isn't exactly that big, the reason I managed to kill those trolls immediately was because I sliced their necks, if I only hit their body, they would have still been able to fight a bit more since the only damage I did to them was to their legs"

"Still, it looked amazing! and your enemy would never see it coming as you yourself wouldn't know too. So what's your 2nd ability?" Sunny asked excitedly.

Luke chuckled seeing Sunny's excited appearance that looked like a kid getting told that they'll go to Disneyland and so he promptly replied, "My 2nd ability is called Reactive Armor, I got it from Icefrog himself as a reward for being so active in fighting on the first day of 'the patch'. It's basically a defensive ability that works incredibly well with Counter Helix, what it does is it increases my armor or physical defense and my HP regeneration. That's the ability I upgraded a while ago by the way, since it's much better for me to be assured that I won't be in any danger while taking all those hits just so Counter Helix would activate."

Sunny and Roy had a look of understanding as they agree with Luke's choice, they weren't surprised that Luke received an ability from Icefrog himself since he already told them about the fact that he met Icefrog. But they were still amazed at how Luke's abilities were quite strong and the two of them worked perfectly well together, though they probably wouldn't want to take those abilities, especially Sunny, after Luke told them how Counter Helix doesn't work all the time and that he would have to take some hits for it. What if she'll get a horrible scar because of it! No way would she like that.

Roy on the other hand was excited in getting another ability in the near future and asked, "So Luke, what ability would work well with Frozen Sigil?"

Luke crossed his arms and seriously thought about it for a while then said, "Well It's not like there's a perfect ability that would work well with Frozen Sigil but in my opinion you just need an offensive ability and you'll be fine. But I think It'll be amazing if you manage to obtain an ability from Viper or Venomancer that could poison whoever you hit them with. Their poison abilities slows your target and also deals damage over time. With such abilities along with your Frozen Sigil, it would be hard for your targets to escape from you, but it's not like you can choose your abilities, so you need to have good luck too."

Roy nodded in agreement and looked at her sister that seemed to be deep in her thoughts so he shook her arms and asked, "Hey what are you thinking about?"

Sunny glared at her brother for interrupting her thoughts and said, "You and Luke both have abilities and the idiot even has two abilities while I don't even have a single one! You have to help me get one, brother!"

"Hey! Who are you calling an idiot?" Luke protested which Sunny ignored.

Roy thought for a while as he stared at the two when he suddenly smiled and said, "I think I have a way for you to get an ability, sis"

Sunny's eyes lit up as she didn't think her request could be fulfilled so soon, "Really, brother? What should I do?" she asked while excitedly shaking Roy's arms.

Roy had a broad smile on his face as he looked at Luke that seemed to mean 'you'll have to thank me later' and said, "Well, the idiot here could help you get one, After all, he is the strongest person we know"

Sunny's jaws dropped as she realized that her brother was right! This guy single-handedly killed all those trolls earlier and yet he just called it an 'exercise'! If he can't help her get an ability then who else can?!?

She had a big smile on her face with her eyes turning into slits as she stared at Luke. Luke tried to ignore her like how she ignored him a while ago as he was looking somewhere else but Sunny had nothing of it and continued smiling that way at him!

Luke finally felt so uncomfortable with a beauty staring at her that deeply for a long time and so he said, "Geez, okay okay! I'll help you get an ability! So will you please stop staring at me like that? It's making me feel uncomfortable since a beauty never stared at me like that" to which Sunny blushed at his last line as she glared at him for a moment.

But she managed to make Luke agree in helping her! She shouted in joy as she felt that it's already assured that she'll be getting an ability so she grabbed Luke's arm and hugged it, that's the least she could do, right?

After she did so, both of them immediately blushed a deep shade of red as they both were never in a relationship before. If it wasn't for Roy being around, the situation would have been so awkward!

"Well... there you go little sis! With him helping you, there's no way you won't be getting an ability" he said with a proud look on his face.

Luke glared at him for a while but remembering that the guy gave him a chance to hang out with Sunny, he then relaxed as he smiled at Roy in thanks.

"Hmmm. She would also be safer with me around than being with you" Luke showed off and didn't forget to make fun of Roy "But still, we have to find a big camp of creeps as that's where I found the crystal ball, which makes me wonder, how did you get your ability, Roy? And how come you were the one who obtained the ability and not one of those morons who weren't friendly with you at all?"

Roy's face twisted as he remembered those people and said, "Well you could say it was thanks to my luck. Those men who were with me were actually my best guards, we were going down the mountain when we saw a camp full of ghosts! It was so creepy, I tell you! The ghosts were just floating on the air as if they were waiting for something. I wanted to make a detour as soon as I saw them but one of my men, the tall buff man you saw on the mountain, saw the crystal ball on the pedestal and so filled with greed, he wanted to grab it"

"Yeah that's a ghost camp, so your men wanted to grab the crystal ball and ended up fighting with the ghosts?" Luke deduced.

"Exactly, but my men were good fighters, and although at first they thought that they wouldn't be able to hurt the ghosts but after realizing that their punches and kicks actually work against them, they managed to obliterate every ghost in the camp in a short time. But while the ghosts were preoccupied with my men, I let my wife hide as I went towards the crystal ball. I just wanted to see it closely! I didn't think that It would disappear upon my touch, then that window appeared in front of me. My men obviously didn't believe me afterwards when they asked me about it! so they attacked me and ended up revealing the affair they had with my wife, so in anger I remembered that window that appeared and managed to activate Frozen Sigil and then you appeared afterwards."

Luke simply nodded as he didn't want Roy to think about what happened and said, "That explains everything, I was confused for a while about how you managed to obtain an ability with how weak you are, no offense, and especially after seeing how the people you were with that time were against you. Anyhow, I guess we have to find another big camp of creeps for Sunny to get an ability. By the way Sunny, you don't mind whatever abiliy you'll get right? I didn't choose my ability either."

Sunny had a resolute look on her face as she nodded and said, "Un! I won't mind what skill i'll get, as long as I can also help you!"

Luke laughed at how cute Sunny looked and Roy's disgruntled expression and said, "Hahaha! Think about helping your brother first, okay? Look at how he's glaring at me for taking his spot. Hahaha!"

Realizing what she just said, Sunny's face turned as red as a tomato as she ran outside the room with her voice trailing behind her, "Idiot!"

Roy smiled wryly at her Sister and couldn't help but sigh, "I don't know what the hell you did but my sister is acting so childish with you around, she has always been so mature around everyone else but me, and even when I'm around but as long as I'm with someone else, she'll act mature. You better treat her well" he seriously said as he stared at Luke in the eye.

Luke couldn't help but choke at Roy's words and said, "Come on now, I'm just being myself. I don't really know what I feel about your sister anyway, for Christ's sake I just met her today, I just think she's pretty but who knows what the future holds"

Roy sighed in relief at his words but Luke added, "I'll probably have to practice calling you brother-in-law in the future, *sigh* why did I get such a sissy looking brother-in-law, good thing his sister's a perfect 10" he said as he nodded at how he graded Sunny's beauty.

Roy was about to cuss at Luke but realized that doing so wouldn't be of any help as the bastard would still continue anyway so he just asked him, "Anyhow, what are your plans now? We'll be leaving after you get your food, where will you go?"

Luke then realized that he's been busy fighting monsters that he forgot about how his family is doing in the current situation, "I'll probably go meet my brothers and sister to check how they're doing, my parents are just at home which is safer than where my siblings are. You mind taking me to the City Hospital?"

"You might not want to go to the City Hospital" Roy replied as he shook his head.

"What do you mean?" Luke answered with a frown.

"I received news that the area around the hospital is swarmed by monsters, I planned on taking you there after you got beat up by the gangsters when I received the news, that's why I brought you here instead."

Luke frowned even further at the news; he needed to go to the hospital! His brother is a nurse at the hospital!

He didn't exactly have a great relationship with that brother of his but it's not like they hated each other either, but he's still his brother and their parents wouldn't be happy with any of them getting hurt.

"The military didn't deal with the monsters yet?" he couldn't help but ask Roy

"It's not like the military didn't try to deal with them, but you see, no matter how many monsters they kill, many more replace them. Monsters from the surrounding area all gather around the hospital so the area is off-limits now."

"I see, that is quite troublesome. What about the people inside the hospital?"

"I don't know if there'll be a rescue for them any time soon, there seemed to be flying monsters so a helicopter can't rescue them either"

Luke truly felt troubled at this moment, he needed to make sure that his brother was safe. Although it wasn't obvious with how mischievous he is, he is actually quite a family-oriented man and during the times his mother is sick or travelling, he's considered the substitute mother around the house, as funny as that may sound. He wanted to rush towards the hospital right now just to check if his brother is inside and if he's alright.

Luke had a resolute look on his face as he decided to deal with the monsters around the hospital, with his Reactive Armor now at level 2, he definitely felt assured now that he'll be far from any danger. But of course, he didn't plan on just recklessly fighting the monsters so he asked Roy's help.

"Hey buddy, can I ask you for another favor? Treat it as the payment for helping Sunny obtain an ability"

Roy couldn't help but smile at this as he was worried a while ago about how he could repay Luke for helping Sunny out so he gladly said, "Sure! Anything as long as it's within my capabilities!"

"Great, let's go to the City Hospital later, my brother's a nurse there so I really need to check if he's inside the hospital or not"

"But what about the monsters? You're not asking me to help you kill the monsters right? you already saw how we even struggled with those trolls, didn't you? I heard that the monsters around the hospital are quite large and ferocious" Roy said with a frown.

"Oh you don't have to worry about that, let me deal with the monsters, besides, the military would be nearby right? We could cooperate with them too, anyway, you have connections to the police right?" he asked as he remembered the riot shields and batons Roy's men were using.

"Well yeah, we can ask for their cooperation, with our abilities I don't think they would decline such an offer to help rescue the people in the hospital anyway"

"Then good, I'll deal with the monsters with the soldiers then you go to the hospital and look for my brother" Luke said so as he got pumped up while thinking about levelling up again after killing those monsters.

"Okay... But I feel like there's more to that place than just a gathering place for monsters" Roy said his thoughts as he felt quite uncomfortable about the plan.

"No worries! With your Frozen Sigil, you can easily run away, so you'll be safe. Besides, with me around, the monsters can be basically counted as dead now! Hahahaha!" Luke said so to ease Roy's worries as he showed off.

What they didn't know was that Roy's worries turned out to be true after all! They wouldn't have imagined that the fight they'll soon be facing would become well known all around the world!