Matt glared at Ramsen. "And you were just going to keep this all to yourself?"

　　Ramsen smiled, weakly, and held up his hands in acquiescence. "What else could we do? Ask you to risk your lives for us, for nothing? Not knowing if we could even be saved from this place?"

　　Matt`s gaze lost none of its intensity.

　　"There is such a thing as being too nice. Yes, you should have asked."

　　"Well, I suppose it`s moot now that you do know. And no way to avoid this now, either." Ramsen brought himself up to his full height, locking eyes with Matt and suddenly matching his intensity. "Matt. Reincarnator. Will you rescue my people?"

　　"I can`t answer that, Ramsen."

　　"I understand the need for time to make an informed decision, Matt. But I must caution you that one way or another, you should move quickly, regardless of what you choose. Not only for our chances, but for your own safety, even in fleeing."

　　Matt shook his head.

　　"No, I have no problem with a snap decision here. It`s just that it`s not mine to make." Matt turned to face Lucy. "Lucy, I`ve run ahead of your advice enough times that I`ve lost count. This one is up to you. Ramsen, is that okay with you?"

　　Ramsen nodded hurriedly. "Absolutely. She risks herself here as well. And she`s a child, that helps."

　　"Don`t give me that bullshit." Lucy roared. "I`m a child? You are telling me you don`t have children in here, too? It`s all adults?"

　　"There are children here. But they aren`t your responsibility. No Gaian child ever committed themselves to the risk of combat like you would have to."

　　"And you don`t think I`m used to that? Matt is really stupid. If he dies, I die. Probably. And he dies almost every day.And you just&"

　　Lucy was pacing now, almost manic. Matt could see the conflict in her, in the tension of her shoulders as she walked away from him and Ramsen, before finally standing in place for a few moments, taking a deep breath, and turning back.

　　She pointed at Ramsen. "How long can this place hold up? Realistically, how long can it hold up against that thing out there? This has to be one of the first things it will go for."

　　"The structure itself? The Scourge could destroy the plinth now. It could pull pieces of the building down. But even as damaged as it seems to be, the core of this dungeon is strong, shielded in every way we could shield it. My best guess would be that it would be safe enough at least as long as our plan is feasible. If the Scourge is strong enough to threaten us, it`s probably too strong for you to stand much of a chance anyway."

　　"Don`t bet on that. I never stand much of a chance," Matt said.

　　"That`s not as cool-sounding as you think it is, Matt." Lucy said, suppressing a smile. "Okay, here`s how it`s going to be. Matt, you and I are going to freaking power-run getting stronger. You want to take big chances? Now`s the time. Nothing can be worse than that thing. We are doing anything and everything to gear up for it, and we are starting right now."

　　Ramsen began to talk, but Lucy immediately cut him off. "No. Shh. I mean it, Matt. Right now. Let`s go."

　　Matt looked at Ramsen and shrugged. Ramsen waved him away and, to his credit, trying not to look too overjoyed at a speck of hope for his people. Or, more appropriately, his Gaians.

　　Matt trotted after Lucy, catching up within a few moments and walking shoulder-to-shoulder with her towards the exit. It was finally, finally time to stop just surviving.

　　It was time to be a hero.

　　Sprinting across the wasteland was a whole different experience. When Matt had first left to find Lucy, his stats were little better than a normal human`s. Having a Vitality stat, even at the baseline 5 points, had meant he regenerated in a way normal humans didn`t. DEX at 5 was similar, making him faster and better at controlling a run. It had been minor tweaks. He had felt like he was more in control, but not much more.

　　Now he had dozens of points, enchanted wasteland boots, and months of fine-tuning his usage of Spring Fighter. There weren`t many points of reference to gauge his speed by on the Gaian landscape, but he was fast. At least bicycle fast. But that wasn`t good enough. He could do better. He knew he could, he just hadn`t been willing to look stupid enough yet. To get hurt enough.

　　When they left the museum, the Scourge had already grown. Matt had seen videos of molds back on earth that would send out tendrils looking for food, eventually developing efficient networks to cart nutrients back to the main mass of fungus. The scourge was sending out various tendrils that reminded him of that, picking off his Ape-aries one by one. On his way out, Matt scooped one of the hives up and moved it with him as far as the first dungeon he passed, putting it in the entranceway and closing the doors. He hoped it would survive in there long enough until the story of his battle with the Scourge came to a resolution, one way or another.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author`s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

　　But once he set down the big box of gentle bees, it was time to hit the afterburners.

　　He cleared a dungeon. It wasn`t a high level, and he didn`t even attempt to keep himself from getting injured. He slashed, he ate, and he left.

　　Once he left, he almost immediately tripped. For once, he wasn`t falling down because of a weird status condition. It`s just that flaring Spring Fighter at full blast while also trying to pour every point of his DEX and STR into a sprint was more than he could coordinate. He got up and did it again, managing to stay on his feet until his STAM bar was fully drained, then kept running, managing to eventually tax his human cardio. He ran until he puked, then rested just long enough to run the whole cycle again. His old track coach had called these wind sprints, and had claimed the puking part was actually avoidable, although Matt had never figured out the trick to actually avoiding it.

　　By the time he and Lucy got to the first location on the treasure map, they had bashed their way through five dungeons, four of them relatively easy and one that nearly killed him. But the dungeons had gone down fast, which was the main thing. Lucy was oddly supportive of Matt`s risk-taking at this point, having gone so far as to simulate some strips of commando greasepaint under her eyes. Matt appreciated the spirit but abstained from doing so himself, since the only black, spreadable substance he owned was the rotted food cube powder. There was no way he was putting that anywhere near his eyes.

　　Physical fitness in a world with VIT was a whole different ballgame, since recovery was so fast. Matt didn`t know how far he could push his non-stat cardio and strength in that time, but he suspected it was pretty far. He was ready to do whatever it took to squeeze every last drop of potential he could out of himself, even if he couldn`t expect any system bonuses from it. And with the system down, he couldn`t.

　　Then Barry came through.

　　Ding!

　　Hi Matt!

　　I`m not supposed to talk to you directly like this, but frankly this seems like a big enough deal that I`m willing to spend a few weeks in the pokey if that`s what it takes to give you an edge here.

　　"Oh, shit. Barry`s being stupid. Helpful, it looks like, but stupid."

　　"Well, tell him to stop, Matt."

　　"How?"

　　You are probably saying "Barry`s being stupid and should stop being helpful" right around now. Well, deal with it. I`m helping. That`s that.

　　The first way I can help is by, and I love this, stealing from the system. It turns out the Scourge is classified as a big enough problem that I could pry a little bit of control beyond what I`ve been able to do in previous system instance downtimes. That means all that shed power from the repair stones he`d normally use to wake up and cause more problems for you is now mine.

　　There`s a limited amount I can do with it, but "limited" is pretty good here when you compare it to the nothing he`d try to give you. Especially since it turns out your previous rewards are underperforming certain statistical bars for how much you should have been given by now.

　　Enjoy!

　　"He`s not going to stop. I hate it, but I can`t say we don`t honestly need the help."

　　"He`s a good guy, Matt. We don`t deserve him."

　　"No, we don`t."

　　Ding!

　　Speed Run Run

　　You`ve completed five dungeons in a row in record time, not only in terms of what you did inside the dungeons but also in terms of how fast you traversed the distance between them in the outside world.

　　It`s not the best idea to completely abandon planning and tactics in favor of full hack-and-slash mayhem, but doing so represents a danger in and of itself, one that you survived. Now you can enjoy the benefits.

　　Rewards: 5 DEX, Spring Fighter LV +1

　　Reckless Disregard

　　You`ve intentionally ignored defense in favor of offense for several consecutive dungeons, tanking frankly unnecessary damage. Fun fact: the amount of damage you took in total across five dungeons was enough to kill a normal human ten times over. Kind of. Armor helped a lot.

　　As always, this wasn`t a good idea, exactly. But as with the last achievement, it`s a notable occurrence to have lived through. I can pay you for those!

　　Rewards: +5 VIT, +5 STR, Advanced Survivor`s Combat LV +1, Rub Some Dirt In It LV + 1

　　"Good stuff?"

　　"Yeah, Barry`s paying out where the system was stingy before, it looks like. I should be a lot tougher, starting now."

　　Matt pulsed Spring Fighter and was immediately impressed by how much extra he was getting out of it. He suspected Barry of playing dirty in some way for a moment, until he remembered how many hours he had logged working on his competence with the skill. He was probably just honestly better at using it than most people would be at the same level.

　　—

　　Matt found his first destination with a bit of help from his Dowsing Rod.

　　It could be said there was some dirt around the door to the Listening and Analysis facility, in the sense that the top of the building was buried two feet underground. Luckily, it appeared it was a one-story building, and Matt was pretty damn good at digging these days. He had the front door uncovered within several minutes, and Barry paid him out in a digging upgrade for finding ancient Gaian history and treasure.

　　It took Matt longer to figure out how to open up the building, eventually realizing that a clump of dirt was hiding the panel that opened the door. As soon as he cleared the dirt off and tapped the thing, it whirred to life.

　　Scanning&

　　This panel has detected authority sufficient to authorize opening this facility. Be warned: despite your high level of authority, it still may not be appropriate or beneficial to access this high-security, highly classified facility.

　　Unlock facility?

　　Y/N