The four troopers accompanying Charles Hellescott moved as one and they were as quick as Keynes.

When he got out of the valley, his heart skipped a beat. Not a kilometre away from where he stood began the forest.

But he’d be a sitting duck for the snipers. Speaking of them, why hadn’t there been any warning shots? Maybe they waited for Hellescott to catch him? He was close behind him.

Keynes stifled the initial urge to run to the forest. He cursed his stupidity and turned his back to the forest.

The first out of the four reached the edge and Keynes kicked his surprised face, sending him down. He didn’t forget that on top of his maxed-out attributes, he wore Contender Ring which boosted his stats by 1.

The second and third man came together. Keynes took a deep breath. Half measures wouldn’t work any longer as much as he wished it.

The katana appeared in his hand. Seeing their tumbling fellow, they prepared to block a kick, not a blade.

One of them dropped to his knees, staring in silence at the stub of his left hand. Keynes didn’t move to kill him. Some lines shouldn’t be crossed.

The third guy ducked but the blade still nicked his shoulder. He wore the black helmet so Keynes couldn’t see his reaction.

Then the fourth one arrived.

Keynes tried to void his emotions but of course, his affliction was gone.

Buffs: Enhanced Learning (permanent), Purified Body (permanent), Photographic Memory (strong). Debuff: Chaos (permanents, semi-dormant, ???).

With a start, he realized that the wrongness had to be related to Chaos debuff. It still pressed against his mind and now it was semi-dormant. Was it waking up? And then a question popped in his head – could he use it somehow against his enemies?

The moment he thought about it, the wrongness pulsed like an eager child. Did it respond to his thought? Are you the same being who messaged us about the cultivation? Are you helping me?

The wrongness vanished in a heartbeat. Keynes cursed between breaths. First, he was in a pickle, to say the least. Second, did he just try to use a Chaos debuff to assist him in a fight? Well, technically, he didn’t try but he considered it.

Experimentation was one thing, jumping headfirst into dark, unknown waters, hoping to find a treasure at the bottom was another. And that was what messing with Chaos felt like. The wrongness didn’t need to be present for Keynes to precisely remember how it felt to be subject of its alien attention.

When Charles Hellescott appeared with the guy who had been kicked by Keynes, he tensed up, preparing for the worst.

The squad leader glanced at the bleeding trooper and winced.

“Where did you get that sword, boy?”

“Back off,” Keynes replied, ignoring his question.

Charles Hellescott shook his head.

“We aren’t here to harm you, boy. So why don’t you calm down and leave the sword on the ground.”

“Never,” Keynes said, a little too sharply, but he was being cornered. “I won’t be your slave.”

“You aren’t a slave. You’re an employee of the World Government like all of us.”

“Have the government kidnapped you with no way out but sign the contract and work for them?”

Hellescott’s bushy moustache twitched and he decided to drop the act.

“Take him.” He gestured to the three troopers. “If you must break his bones.”

But the three men were wary now that one of them had lost his hand. Hellescott didn’t like what he was seeing.

“He’s only Level 2,” he said. “While you’re Level 3s. Amateurs. This is why the army had to be reorganized, it produced children instead of men.”

Even though Hellescott’s words were harsh, his tone was conversational and unthreatening.

And then he moved. He was fast but not overwhelmingly fast. Nonetheless, the stats were a bit more complex than simple numbers. Kaito Ren had explained this to Keynes during their early training in Jamaica. Kaito Ren’s maxed-out Strength was almost enough to punch above his level but when he’d competed with people one level above him, he’d lost. The issue was that all attributes were intrinsically connected and worked with the most efficiency when they were balanced. Obviously, Kaito Ren had better odds at winning against someone equal to his level but without all attributes maxed out his chances against the higher levels dropped drastically. Keynes had given serious thought to it and had agreed that equal Strength and even Dexterity might be not enough when an opponent had better Perception, Mind, Will and now Vitality. The synergy between attributes multiplied too much.

So, it didn’t matter how little difference was between Hellescott’s and Keynes’s Dexterities, when Keynes swung the katana down, the squad leader easily dodged as if he saw the attack from kilometres away.

To add insult to injury, Hellescott made it look easy. There was no tension on his face as if Keynes wasn’t worth the effort.

The squad leader danced around the blade, while his three troopers surrounded Keynes.

“Drop the weapon,” he said.

Keynes still had the Orb of Perfection but without description, he wasn’t sure what good could come out of using it. For all he knew, it could make things worse. The body purification process made him unable to move for an hour. He had a suspicion that the orb would have a similar effect on him.

Armed only with the katana and Contender Ring, Keynes had to decide what to do next. He couldn’t beat Hellescott alone, not to mention his three henchmen.

Twice he twisted, cutting two troopers at their shin level. While he clearly was stronger than them, Hellescott decided to take a chance to catch him off guard the second time.

Hellescott’s grip latched to his left biceps, Keynes kicked but found his attack easily blocked. Then Hellescott headbutted his face and Keynes dropped on his back.

He rolled over before the Level 3s got him. They jumped on him in an instant. If they wanted to kill him, he’d be dead. But their orders were to keep him alive and he would exploit it.

Keynes rolled thrice before they caught up with him and tried to pin him down. He put the katana back into his pouch and focused on getting out of the joint locks. It quickly turned into a brawl as the three slightly weaker men tried to overwhelm Keynes. What neither of the men knew was that Kaito Ren and later Captain Ventura had shown Keynes what the true grind was. And the brawl evolved into just that, a pure grind of willpower and endurance.

At least until Hellescott had enough.

“Get off him, you idiots,” he rumbled. “This is embarrassing. To think that I had to leave my squad in America…”

The three troopers relaxed their muscles. They were exhausted, judging by their sluggish movements. Keynes considered seizing the moment and attacking them, but they were not the ones he should worry about.

As the four of them untangled, Hellescott reached to grab Keynes, and seeing his exhausted troopers, the man assumed that Keynes would be in a similar state, tired and slow.

The katana appeared in Keynes’s hand and without a second thought, he thrust it into Hellescott’s chest. The Level 5 proved once more that he wasn’t a joke. He moved out of the way, although not fast enough and the blade entered his chest but nowhere near any vital organs.

Worse, he gripped the naked blade with his hands and pulled it out of Keynes’s hand. Then he threw the katana away.

“That hurt,” he said as he stared at his blood. “You’re stubborn, I will give you—”

Keynes jumped to his feet, then lunged at Hellescott, hoping to catch him off guard but to no avail. Even wounded, the man just moved out of harm’s way.

“In another couple of minutes, the President will get out of the rift and you’ll be his problem,” Hellescott admitted. “I am more of a find and kill than a catch guy. I’m not cut for this. They haven’t even allowed me to carry a gun. As if they worried that I may shoot you. But I can snap your neck with my bare hands as easily as I can pull a trigger. Where’s logic?”

Right. I have to get out of here. Once Freeman arrives here, I am done.

Keynes thought about the Chaos debuff again. So, it must come to this? Me being a total jackass, plunging into the unknown, murky waters. Once I get out of this mess, I must return to maxing out the attributes and Spirit.

He took a breath and started slowly walking backwards. He eyed his katana and grimaced.

Items. Freeman had four rings and that fire aura. I should have planned this better in Scotland.

He’d had a few chances to steal items, but he’d worried that others would notice and report him or ask where the items had disappeared. So far others seemed unaware of his dimensional pouch.

“Another step and I will signal the snipers to shoot your legs…” Hellescott warned him but then trailed off when he noticed that snipers had left their positions. “What in the name of god. Where are they?”

Suddenly, the squad leader stiffened and it took Keynes several moments to hear what had made Hellescott freeze.

Bellows and roars.

The rift monsters got through the troopers. Either Freeman died in the rift, which was unimaginable, he was damned Level 10 and this was only a Level 2 rift, or he lived but so did the boss.

They came like a wave, dozens of them at first, then over a hundred. The Overcharged effect was no joke. It was no wonder that Australia had been abandoned. This was madness.

The madness I have unleashed on the world.

It was the difficult truth and one that burned in his conscience but he wouldn’t make a different choice. People like Freeman, Earls, Hellescott or McJames were the reason why Keynes had to go all out.

“Squad Leader,” the three troopers, started retreating in haste. “We can’t fight them, we don’t have weapons.”

“Amateurs.” He spat on the ground shaking off the shock. “Grab—”

Keynes wasn’t having any of that. He was running at the full speed away from Hellescott and the earth trolls.

“STOP!” Hellescott bellowed. It was hard to tell who he yelled at as his three troopers were running away as well. No one sane was going to fight the horde of Level 2 earth trolls, unarmed.

As Keynes reached the tree line, he saw Hellescott copy their ideas and flee. Keynes didn’t know what had happened to the trooper he’d cut.

And for the best.

He entered the forest, taking the first breath of freedom.

Oh, crap, I forgot the trolls—

He set off away from the trolls, the exotic rift and Windsor Freeman.

His face was filled with glee and he’d never felt better.

***

Windsor Freeman stood near the last cave’s chamber. The exotic rift was a massive system of caves. Difficult to navigate with many dead ends, traps and different types of trolls. Earth trolls were the most common here, but he’d encountered other sub-types of earth trolls with different abilities and a thing called Earthling of the Sandless Plains. He wouldn’t pay it any mind if not for the fact that the monster had an exotic affinity alongside exotic rarity. Judging by the otherworldy appearance, it was an apt affinity for the bulbous thing. But Windsor didn’t have much time to ponder the potential connection between exotic rarity and affinity. If there was one, his researchers would find it. He would make Lawrence Lawe come here and figure this out. Meanwhile, Windsor took stock of what lay in the boss room.

First of all, he hadn’t struggled as most of the rift monsters died effortlessly but had been pushed to the heights he shouldn’t. He blamed this on the removal of the damage reduction. But a part of him knew the deeper, bitter truth.

In order to escape the hell he’d been born to, Windsor Freeman had taken advantage of his Talent and had stolen essence from other people.

The limitations of his Talent were fierce but the world was full of people. It didn’t bother him that he could steal essence only once from the same person.

But at the same time, his Talent had trapped him. Windsor believed that all he needed was to level up – endlessly.

And then, three years ago, he hit Level 10 and since then his progression had stayed at 0%. He’d hoped that rift essence would change the status quo. After all, people who received the rift essence grew stronger than the human essence ascenders.

But that wasn’t the case. No matter how many rifts Windsor cleared, bosses killed, techniques learned, his progression remained at 0%.

Even now, after slaughtering hundreds of Level 2 monsters, his progression refused to budge. He was missing something vital.

Something that should make the Level 2 monsters an afterthought to a Level 10.

Somehow, I am too weak. I have rushed my levelling to get to the top only to learn that this isn’t the top.

He felt the weight of this realization try to crush him. He needed to be the strongest but how could he when his original plan had failed? Worse than that, if Lawrence’s extrapolation was correct, then the first person who was going to reach Level 10 exclusively on rift essence, would be almost 50% stronger than him.

He punched the wall, shattering the rock around his fist.

50% sounded so unbelievable that he’d had other scientists retry the calculations. 50% was the correct number.

Attributes

Permanent

Bonus

Total

Strength

47

10

57

Dexterity

47

10

57

Will

47

4

51

Mind

47

9

56

Perception

47

6

53

Vitality

47

5

52

He took a look and grimaced. He couldn’t even use more items, the strain on his Spirit was too great. He had to settle with four attribute boosting items and Lesser Fire Demon Skin coat that granted him a fire aura and +5 to Mind.

There were better rings than a mediocre Contender Ring he’d found after using an orb on the rift but they were spiritually too heavy.

Additionally, he couldn’t enter a rift in the challenge mode as it’d been only available to a Level 1. All the troopers that had entered the challenge rift, one by one because it wouldn’t let more than one person in, had never come out.

If he accepted the scientific data and their extra 50%, it’d amount to 70 stats per attribute. Even with his items, he wasn’t close to that. Without the Helios Protocol, he couldn’t stop the world from levelling up via the rifts. And he wasn’t sure what the damned kid had done to warrant Pullman’s warning of this magnitude but if he caused another outbreak…

That would mean Windsor had to start disciplining the boy. Level 2 rifts available to Columbus Curt were an issue but not the end of the world. At least he knew that Keynes Kid couldn’t be trusted.

I’ll have to use his family as an incentive. The next time he goes against my orders, one of them will die.

Windsor closed the attributes window and looked back at the boss cave

The boss stood out from the rest, he was a much larger version of the earth troll but with two distinct differences.

First, he held a spear made out of hardened earth, and the second one, he looked much more intelligent than average earth trolls.

The boss was surrounded by several earth trolls and the earthling of the sandless plains.

Windsor wasn’t going to slink. The Level 2 monsters were inferior to him even in his weakened state. Once the Human Project was up and running, Windsor would be able to fix his weaknesses.

He stepped into the final cave without hesitation. He needed to kill the boss before the monster overwhelm his troopers outside the rift. By now, Pullman should be on his way back to Spain.

The monsters roared and mindlessly rushed Windsor. Only the boss remained glued to its spot. Windsor unleashed his fire aura, creating a death zone. He’d tried to combine the [Fire Aura] and spiritual aura but his Spirit was too low for that. He had to find tomes and techniques to learn the required abilities.

The moving monster couldn’t stop in time and barreled into the range of his aura. Their screams were intense but his aura was only Level 2 and didn’t deal as much damage as Windsor would like.

Windsor conjured [Fireball]s and hurled them at the nearest monsters. Despite their fire resistance, they didn’t last long enough to approach Windsor. The earthling of sandless plains was the sole exception. It looked as if its body had swollen in several places at the same time but at a different rate, creating the misshapen creature. Its hard, earthlike skin or armour had black colour with patches of brown.

The monster seemed almost unaffected by Windsor’s [Fire Aura] but the longer it stayed in its range, the more damage over time it’d be dealt, eventually overcoming the monster’s fire resistance.

It screeched at the sudden surge of pain it had to experience right now. Windsor capitalized on the distraction and closed the gap between him and the monster.

The moment Windsor appeared next to it, its four spider-like legs exploded from beneath its body and tried to stab Windsor. But between the two, the monster’s speed was no contender to Windsor’s one.

He punched it with his left fist. He wore a common rarity glove without any stats. It was only a little more useful than an ordinary glove and as he punched the Level 2 monster, he felt the glove’s material tear.

The monster’s body parted with ease under Level 10 Strength, but the nature of the creature was as its affinity suggested – exotic.

Windsor’s punch didn’t kill it, even with the close proximity of [Fire Aura]. The monster’s body started pulsing and reforming. Its legs retracted. The previous monster of this type had died after Windsor had spent 40% of his mana on [Fireball]s while it’d been reforming. It seemed that the excessive physical damage caused it to undergo this process. It made the creature hard to kill without magic but also left it vulnerable while in this state.

He pushed [Fire Aura] to the maximum, burning mana at an increasing rate then slammed [Fireball]s into the formless creature.

When the essence entered his body, he knew it died and he turned his attention to the boss. Other monsters either fled Windsor’s vicinity or were dead.

The boss showed its sharp teeth when Windsor started walking toward him. It didn’t move though. Its black eyes were locked on Windsor with hunger.

When he stopped a dozen metres from the boss, it moved. The boss was four metres tall, with long, supple arms reaching to its knees and earth-covered skin. Windsor’s initial judgement had been that the boss was intelligent but then it attacked and cleared the misconception.

It was a larger version of the earth troll with a spear.

Spearman Earth Troll (Exotic, Boss)

Level

3

Abilities

Earth Skin – Increased resistance against fire and physical attacks (passive).

---

Children of Earth – Touching uncovered soil increases regenerations by 10% (passive).

---

Earth Shaping – an ability to create clumps of the earth (active).

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Earth Spear – an ability to conjure and use a spear out of the earth. Stabbing a living organism with the earth spear can turn the victim into a lesser earth golem (active).

Details

Exotic dweller of rifts known for his relentless nature.

The boss had only the exotic rarity, not affinity. Good. Windsor didn’t wish to waste any more time here. The spearman earth troll thrust the spear, hoping to skewer Windsor but its speed was laughable to Windsor. Only in a large number, the earth trolls could threaten him, and then only barely.

Windsor sidestepped, letting the spear miss him then kicked the monster’s knee, breaking it.

“Time to die, creature.”