There weren’t many cars on the road as they made their way down the hill, and that changed to positively barren as they neared the park.

No one else was stupid enough to be charging the moose, it seemed.

Steven took deep, slow breaths. His emotions were a mess, which was a problem. His first reaction was to shy away, to cut it all off until it couldn’t touch him.

That habit needed to die before it got him killed.

So, as they bumped and bounced along the road, Steven didn’t try to crush his fear and nerves. He tried to accept them, to work around them.

He didn’t know if that was possible, but he would try, dammit.

By the time Margie pulled to a stop, he felt a little better.

Not good, but better.

It’ll do.

He checked over his Skills and frowned. “I still have five minutes left on Anchor Shields cooldown.”

Margie grunted. “Well, that’s fine. We still need to spend our Skill points. Unless you think we should hang onto them?”

Steven shook his head. “No, that’s a great idea.” Steven had been about to suggest it himself.

He pulled up his slotted Skills.

Hand-Shield was already fully upgraded, so he set that to the side.

“Actually, about that. I may have forgotten to add something while you were Tempering your Skills. And by forgot to add, I mean it’s there, and I forgot to tell you.”

“I swear to god.”

“Relax! It’s a good surprise…this time.”

Hand-Shields lvl 5 Trait: Absorbent has been enhanced. +10% effectiveness (a total of 40%)

“Which also means your range increase is now + 14 feet. See? Good news.”

Steven sighed. As much as he wished the System had mentioned this earlier, it was good.

That’s double the increase Absorbent got last time. Is it going to double every Threshold?

He shook his head and turned his attention to his other Skills.

Lumbering Tower Shield and Anchor Shield.

Lumbering Tower Shield had served him well, but did it need levels? So far, most things hadn’t even managed to scratch it, much less crack it. And nothing had broken it.

Regan had been close. More than close. If I weren’t overclocking it, the shield would have shattered.

But nothing short of a literal pillar of fire slamming into it had given the shield trouble. And that was before it got Tempered. He hadn’t tested it yet, but he doubted the Tempering had been a minor increase.

That said, the System had explicitly warned them not to attempt to fight the Beasts without a party of level 10s. Which they were about to do anyway.

There was a very good chance that Bullwinkle could break his Tower Shield.

If he wanted to, Steven could max out both of the Skills right now.

It would take all his Skill points to do it, but it would be a massive power boost.

He scratched his chin as he read them over. He’d waited this long on upgrading the Tower Shield because there’d been no need, and he hadn’t wanted to waste the Skill points unless he was sure he would be running with the Skill for the long run.

If he got a respec station, would he regret upgrading Tower Shield?

He sighed. Planning for the long run was important, but it wouldn’t matter if he held back too much and died.

Unless he found a respec station, he couldn’t even slot another active Skill for another five levels, and he’d be able to max it by then anyway.

Anchor Shield was an epic and passively helped protect his friends by existing. He was leveling it. And since it was epic, he could gain even more for maxing it.

Steven clenched his jaw. His points would be useless to his corpse.

Lumbering Tower Shield lvl 2: Increased durability.

Lumbering Tower Shield lvl 3: + 3 feet range.

Lumbering Tower Shield lvl 4: increase durability.

Lumbering Tower Shield lvl 5: Trait gained: Bulwark.

Effect: activate to double shield size for 5 seconds.

Nice!

That active! That kind of coverage was amazing.

He pulled up Anchor Shield next.

Anchor Shield lvl 2: +5 feet radius.

Anchor Shield lvl 3: increased damage transfer.

Anchor Shield lvl 4: +5 feet radius. Increased shield buff.

Anchor Shield lvl 5: Trait gained: Your Pain Is Mine

Effect: Increases damage transfer and the damage taken can be divided between all shields in Anchor Shields radius and the castor.

He looked up. “I’m all done. You guys?”

Micheal nodded. “I upgraded my taunt. Its max duration is now three seconds, though strong wills can shake that off earlier. And it gained a passive ability that gets stronger on people I’ve taunted.” He ran a hand through red hair.

“It’s sort of like a mini taunt. They're more likely to focus on me than the people around me, but not to the same degree as the active Skill. I leveled Run Heroes, Run as well.”

He shrugged. “A little boring, but strong upgrades. Even more speed, and you use less energy when running towards me.”

He turned to Margie. “You?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I level-“

Del cut her off with a curse, and everyone turned as she pointed.

Bullwinkle stood a little over ten feet away, a heavy snowbank marking the edge of his territory.

Blue mist swirled from his nose, wrapping around his antlers and sinking into the gusting snow.

He stared at Steven, his blue eyes full of malice. Bullwinkle stomped at the ground, and his eyes narrowed.

Steven glared right back. “You just wait there a few minutes, you bastard. Then we’re going moose hunting.”