Covered in gore and viscera, Akira returned home in the early evening. She'd been peeved that morning when she realized Lukas wouldn't be going out with her, that annoyance only growing throughout the day.

As it turned out, word about Lukas had traveled quickly. Not quite as fast as fire in dry grass, but more like a blaze ripping through sawdust soaked in alcohol. She had been swamped with questions and inquiries from the moment she stepped foot in the city, and it was ridiculous. Akira knew her family was important and well known, but they weren't royalty. This kind of reaction over last night's announcement seemed a bit much, and for a while she was afraid that people had found out that Lukas was an outworlder.

That fear was assuaged when Akira found Luna waiting for her at the contracts hall. The wolf-girl seemed disappointed to see her show up alone, and revealed that many new rumors were flying about. It seemed that the story they had spun up wasn't enough, and people wanted to know more about Lukas.

It all made finding good contracts a chore, the only consolation being that Luna was willing to tag along. And once out of the city, things were mostly fine. Granted, their first two contracts were disappointingly easy, providing little in the way of a challenge. Their third contracted beast was poached by a lost adventurer who'd gotten turned around while looking for his own contract. And their last mark of the day had exploded in a grisly fashion once dead, leaving Luna's fur soaked in rancid blood and Akira covered in small meat chunks.

All in all, Akira wasn't having a great day. Knowing that, she decided she would wait until tomorrow morning to turn in her completed contracts. Considering her luck so far, there was no doubt Elias would be at the guild campus if she went now, and she really didn't want to deal with him after everything else. At least if he showed up tomorrow Lukas would be with her, whether the outworlder liked it or not.

Approaching the estate's main gate, the guards greeted her. "Lady Anuk," one said with a bow, "It looks like you've had a productive day."

She looked over her filthy state, glad to see that her armor's cleaning enchantment was making progress. "Something like that," she grunted. "Do you know where my mother is?"

She really just wanted to crash at Lukas' house and do nothing for the rest of the day, but Akira knew she needed to update her mother on the tome she'd given Lukas. She understood why her mother wanted such constant updates—considering Lukas' condition—but that didn't make it any less annoying.

"Last I heard she was at the illusion arena," the other guard said. "Been there a few hours."

Nodding in thanks, Akira made her way over, finding the grounds curiously empty. Oh, there were still plenty of people around, but there should've been more at that time of day. Not putting too much thought into it, Akira eventually entered the illusion arena.

It was after passing through the lobby and into the main viewing suite that she found where all the people had gone. The large room felt almost claustrophobic, bodies packed in tight, most pressed up against the glass and staring into the arena proper. She could barely hear herself think over the chatter as people tried to talk over one another.

Frowning, Akira looked over the crowd but couldn't spot her mother in the thicket of people. After speaking to one of her distant relatives, they directed her toward the side room.

Sure enough, her mother stood alone, looking thoughtfully out the window.

"There you are," Akira said, walking over. "What's with all the people—?"

That was when she noticed the only other person in the room. It was Lukas. He was sat cross legged in the center of one of the entrance circles, his hands were folded in his lap, and his head drooped making it look as though he'd fallen asleep while meditating.

Akira scowled at the man and had half a mind to punch him. "Traitor," she grumbled.

That got her mother's attention as she turned and looked at Akira from under raised brows.

"He told me that he wanted to do more training," Akira explained. "If he'd told me he wanted to come here I would've gladly joined him."

"Interesting day?" her mother asked, her amusement evident.

Akira's only response was an irritated huff.

"If it's any consolation, dear, Lukas only came here after running into Lance and Lyla's team. And if you want to watch him, I'd hurry—he's already been in there a few hours and he's being worn down."

"Hours!?" Akira shouted, scurrying over to the window. Down below she could see Lukas flitting through the trees, the sound of roaring beasts not far behind him. "What mode is this?"

"Wave survival. Lance thought it would be a quick way to get Lukas familiar with the arena. Now Lukas is on wave forty-four."

She let out a surprised breath. "At his level?"

"We both know his stats far exceed his level," her mother said, and Akira nodded in agreement, "but the lack of abilities is hurting him. I don't know if he'll make it to the guardian of wave forty-five."

They fell into silence as they watched Lukas. He continued his flight, occasionally dropping into the shadows to extend his lead. Each time he did so, the arena shifted, turning a monochrome black and white, showing off the shadow world Lukas moved through each time he used the ability. He didn't do it often, and never for very long, a clear indicator that he was running out of mana.

After a while he scrambled up a tree, showing off his impressive agility, before crouching on one of the lowest boughs. Now that he'd stopped moving, Akira could get a better look at him—and he was in rough shape.

The man was absolutely covered in blood that wasn't being cleaned by his armor. Every spec of available mana was being funneled into the self-repair enchantment in an attempt to mend the tattered armor for the next fight. Through the gore it was obvious he was missing his left hand, and parts of his forearm. Other than that, he was covered in countless bleeding cuts and gashes.

Panting, chest heaving, Lukas pulled a strange-looking potion out of the air. It looked like a mana potion, but was in a strange round bottle she'd never seen before. What most captured her attention was the action of pulling it out.

"Has he been doing that this whole time!?" Akira asked, alarmed.

"He has," her mother nodded. "But he's been careful, and the others assume it's related to his alchemy class since he hasn't pulled out anything but potions and poisons. Have some faith in him." She smirked.

Down in the arena, Lukas crushed the bottle in his hand, and a fine light-blue mist billowed out, enveloping him. A large amount was greedily absorbed by his armor while the rest dissipated in the air. Akira watched with interest as the leather strips he wore began to resemble armor once more. What he'd done hadn't been enough to repair it fully, but most of its functionality had returned.

Taking out another potion—this one a regular health potion—Lukas tipped his mask up just enough to throw back the red liquid. By this point the pack of beasts had caught up and were tearing the area apart looking for him.

Lukas sat crouched, watching as they searched, and Akira could've sworn those amber lights of his burned with excitement.

"This is fun," he panted, pulling out more of those round bottles. These were a vile red and black, Lukas lobbing them all over, and flooding the field with poisonous mist. In an instant the illusionary forest was filled with roars of pain as already-injured beasts got the worst of it. Leaping from his spot and into the toxic clouds, he summoned a star-forged lumber axe, ready to bring it down on the nearest beast.

Akira watched with fascination as Lukas slaughtered the remaining wave with unrestrained violence and little care for his own well-being. As the fight intensified, cheers and applause could be heard from the main suite as onlookers urged him on, more than willing to watch the show.

Lukas fought on, moving through the tide of beasts like a specter as they tripped over one another in a desperate bid to kill him. Despite his simple and brutal fighting style, there was a surprising amount of efficiency in his actions. He made sure each and every beast was suffering some kind of injury before throwing out more bottles of poison gas. This only made the wounds bleed more profusely while infecting them with a horrifying necrotoxin.

As the first beasts began to fall, Akira found she couldn't take her eyes off him. The way he flowed through his attacks, swapping between weapons with apparent ease, was by no means special—everyone learned to fight and to fight well—but this was something different. Akira had to admit she found Lukas impressive for someone at his stage.

"He's integrating the fighting techniques quite well," her mother noted. "When did you give him the tome—last week?"

Akira shook her head, unable and unwilling to pull her gaze away. "This morning."

Her mother stared at her in shock before looking down at the slaughter below. "That is… he is much more talented than I expected."

That pulled Akira's gaze from Lukas. Never before had she seen her mother so flustered and without words. "What should we do? It's not going to be a problem, is it?"

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"No," her mother said, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "The only issue is him stagnating or developing his fighting technique too far before he gains his other abilities." She fell quiet for a few minutes, thinking over the best course of action. "Take him out for a few days—into the deep forest and past the contract restrictions."

"Really?" Akira asked, surprised. "You want the two of us to go out alone?"

Throughout her entire life she'd never been allowed into the deep forest without supervision in case something went wrong. The deep forest was truly wild after all; and while the beasts generally stuck to areas with similar power levels, it wasn't uncommon to find something much stronger lingering in low-magic zones. Plenty of good adventurers had died that way—Lukas himself had come across the aftermath of one such battle on his first day on Adona.

With a hesitant nod, her mother said, "You two are smart and know how to avoid danger. Besides, if you're going to be a team you'll need to learn how to fight and travel as a team. Not only that, but this will be an opportunity for him to earn some levels. In fact, I don't want you to return until he has unlocked at least two abilities for each of his classes."

"Two? Are you sure about that? We'd be out there for a while."

A coy smile worked its way onto her lips. "It will be a nice chance for you to learn more about each other. Knowing your teammate is important."

Akira stared at her mother for a moment, finding her words and behavior suspicious. Ultimately, though, she nodded—her excitement to test herself in the true wilds overcoming her caution over what her mother was scheming. "When do you want us to leave? We can leave now, we just have to get Lukas out—"

"Tomorrow morning," her mother interjected, stopping her before she could get going. "You'll go tomorrow morning. Once you're back, take him to the arenas within the city. He needs experience fighting other adventurers, not just monsters."

"What about his guild membership? When should we sign him up?"

"When you return, but it will depend on how well he performs while you're out. If his skills are at an acceptable level I'll sponsor him personally, and after his entry test it should preclude him from having to go through the probationary period."

"What!" Akira shouted, wheeling on her mother. "You made me go through it—why are you letting him get a pass?"

Her mother didn't turn from the window, but her smile was clearly visible. "You don't want him to fall too far behind, do you?"

"I guess not," she grumbled, turning back to the arena as Lukas finished off the remaining beasts. "If he manages to get through this wave, do you think he'll be able to take down the guardian?"

"Absolutely not."

***

Lukas ran through the illusionary forest, ducking and weaving through the thick brush, heavy footfalls shaking the earth not far behind him. His heart hammered in his chest, pumping adrenaline through his veins. He was heaving for air, his stamina nearly bottomed out, his health and mana not much better.

With no time to recover between the forty-fourth and forty-fifth wave, he'd been forced to play things as safe as he could manage. It took a long time and even more poison to put down such strong beasts, but he'd managed to do it.

But again he was given no time to catch his breath. The moment the final beast was dead a titanic roar shook the forest and ruptured his eardrums. His ears hadn't stopped ringing by the time the ground began to rumble and the wave guardian burst through the trees

Lukas needed no convincing to flee and had bolted right then and there, because he knew there was no winning in his state. This was the end. Unfortunately, there was no easy exit, and the only way to leave a survival scenario was to die or beat the final guardian—and Lukas was only halfway through the waves. Of course, he hadn't known this going in and had only been informed by Mathias, whose voice had come from the sky like some mischievous wolf god.

That left one way to leave, and while Lukas knew none of this was truly real, it felt real. Losing his hand had made that terrifyingly clear. The fear and panic that flooded him then had almost cost him his life. It was only after downing a quick health potion and reminding himself that it was all just an illusion that he calmed down enough to avoid getting himself killed.

Just because he knew he'd be fine if he "died," didn't mean he didn't have an extreme aversion to it and would do everything to avoid it. That meant fighting to the bitter end and doing whatever it took to extend the inevitable.

Lukas wanted to reach out to Sera for advice or guidance, but he couldn't. He'd tried a few times already and found out that while in illusions he couldn't contact the goddess. He could still reach out and feel the blessing like usual, but it felt dimmed and distant. He was left dealing with this terrifying situation on his own, something he hadn't had to do for quite some time now.

He kept running, trying and failing to put more distance between him and his pursuer. Eventually, Lukas came across a rocky bluff several stories tall. Knowing it was his best chance at survival, he climbed the escarpment for all he was worth. His body trembled with strain and his slowly healing left arm made things difficult, but he managed.

He was almost to the top when the guardian came into view, and the two locked eyes.

Greater Rock Drake – Lv. 60

"Fuck."

The Rock Drake looked just like the Fireborn Drake he'd killed weeks ago, only this one had gray skin like a rhino and was absolutely massive. The size of a semi-truck, Lukas wouldn't have been surprised if the thing could collapse the wall he was climbing.

Not only that, but the thing was an unbelievable level sixty, by far the strongest beast he'd ever seen face to face. He knew from experience that guardians were stronger than the other beasts of that wave, but this seemed like a massive step up. Those of the forty-fifth wave were all in the mid-forties, only a handful making it any higher.

Even then, it was only thanks to recent training and the new tome he'd absorbed that he was still alive. Facing so many strong enemies at once had forced him to delve into the new knowledge and pull out its teachings. Doing so cemented a lot of the information not only in his mind but also his body.

Unfortunately, none of that would be enough for Lukas' latest opponent.

The Greater Rock Drake glared daggers at him and opened its mouth. A steely-colored energy began to gather there. Lukas' eyes went wide with alarm, remembering the beam of fire the Fireborn Drake had unleashed on him.

With no time to lose, Lukas scrambled up the remaining rock face. He'd just barely clawed himself past the edge when it exploded, sending stone and dirt flying everywhere and throwing Lukas to the ground. Pushing himself to his feet, he ran back to the edge and peered over, only to just barely dodge another beam shot straight up from the Drake, now halfway up the cliff face.

"Shit!" Lukas swore, stumbling back and nearly falling on his backside.

From over the edge, the scraping and clattering of rocks could be heard as the Drake clawed its way up. Swearing, Lukas pulled out two fistfuls of poison and launched them down the escarpment, rewarded with a hellish screech in return. Looking back down, he was tempted to swear again.

Despite being enveloped in clouds of hemotoxic and necrotic poison, the Drake was hardly affected, its thick hide and resistance making it hard for the toxins to take hold. It was only a reminder of something he'd realized since entering the arena.

He was made for speed and quick attacks, whittling down his enemies and waiting for his poisons to take effect. He needed to be stronger and unlock more of his abilities, because at the moment they were all utility—even if they were useful in battle. The sooner he could do more damage, the better. There wasn't anything he could do at the moment though, nothing other than accepting that it was time to get going.

Hands clenched, Lukas took quick breaths to hype himself up for what came next. Running full speed ahead, he leaped over the cliff's edge, summoning the largest sword his minuscule mana pool would allow.

*

Lukas came to with a jolt, his eyes snapping open and his body shooting to its feet. In an instant he was in a defensive crouch, ready to take on whatever came at him—until he was bombarded with a flood of sensations.

At once he fell back to the ground, barely registering the sound of approaching footsteps.

"It's disorienting coming out for the first time, isn't it?" he heard Kora ask.

Rather than answer, Lukas did a quick self-check, and after a flood of new notifications he found that he was in perfect condition. There was no blood, no missing hand, and no torn-up armor. All of his resource pools were full, and his heartbeat was normal, if slightly elevated due to his confusing return to reality. Even his blessing felt normal, and he could sense Sera in the room with him.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Lukas looked up to find Sera, Kora, and Akira all looking down at him. The first two wore similar expressions of pride and amusement, though to varying degrees. Akira, on the other hand, had a complex expression he couldn't decipher, so he didn't try.

Taking a step forward, Kora offered him her hand, which he promptly took, allowing himself to be helped up.

"You did good," she said, giving him a quick look up and down. "Better than anyone else at your level, in fact. And it seems your efforts have awarded you a few levels to boot."

She was right. Once out of the illusion, Lukas had been set upon by notifications and increased stats. Pulling them up, he took a look:

Level gained: [Rogue of Night] has reached Level 29 – Stat points allocated.

Level gained: [Human (Outworlder)] has reached Level 30 – Stat points allocated.

Level gained: [Rogue of Night] has reached Level 30 – Stat points allocated.

Ability: Domain of the Combat Alchemist has reached Level 1.

Level gained: [Combat Alchemist] has reached Level 32 – Stat points allocated.

Level gained: [Human (Outworlder)] has reached Level 31 – Stat points allocated.

Ability: Star Forged Armory has reached Level 1.

During his time in the illusion, he hadn't gained a single level and thought that he couldn't, but now that he realized it was possible, he was wondering why he didn't get more. He'd slain hundreds of beasts—only gaining a handful of levels seemed too few.

Frowning, he also opened his status screen to check the changes.

Lukas Hellstrand

Race: Human (Outworlder [unique]) – Level 31 Class 1: Combat Alchemist – Level 32 Class 2: Rogue of Night – Level 30

Health: 1230/1230 Stamina: 1140/1140 Mana: 1230/1230

Stats Vitality: 123 Endurance: 114 Intelligence: 109 Wisdom: 123 Agility: 173 Perception: 114 Toughness: 147 Strength: 139 Willpower: 78

Free Points: 24

Titles: Prodigious Dimensional Traveler, Unkillable, True Heart of a Warrior, Indomitable Worm, Hierophant of the Risen Goddess, Unceasing.

Abilities: Combat Alchemist: Amber Eye of the Alchemist [1], Domain of the Combat Alchemist [1]

Rogue of Night: Lurker of the Shadows [1], Star Forged Armory [1]

Race: Dimensional Traveler, Tribute of the Fallen, Steel Gut, Tongue of the Multiverse, Stranger in a Strange Land

Happy with what he saw, Lukas dumped all of his free points into Strength, bringing it to 170 and making it his second-highest stat.

Refocusing on the women, he asked, "Why didn't I improve more? I did a lot of killing—surely I should've gotten more out of it."

"Most people don't even gain a single level," Akira said, p op rolling her eyes. "And if I had to guess, you gained a few."

"Really? Not one?" he frowned, and even Sera looked curious.

"When someone uses the illusion arena for the first time they often gain a level or two, but after that it's rare for anyone to gain anything," Kora explained. "It's a training tool after all, and it's only the stress you're under during your first experience that makes leveling possible."

"Well, damn," Lukas sighed with disappointment. "And here I was hoping to use it to speed level. I need more levels—and definitely more abilities."

Kora smiled. "That's exactly what I want to hear, because I'll be sending you and Akira out for a few days for just that reason."

"You will?" he asked, looking between mother and daughter.

"Yup," Akira said, her expression brightening. "We'll be going out into the real wilds, working as a team and getting some real-world experience."

"That's great!" Lukas perked up, ready to get to work right away. "When do we head out?"

"Tomorrow morning," Kora said, grinning as she looked between the two of them like a mother watching two children about to open gifts.

Lukas nodded and turned toward the door. "Alright, well I want to talk to Lance and the others about—"

"Actually," Akira interjected, jumping in front of him, "Why don't we go out the other way?"

Lukas opened his mouth to ask why, but before he could the elf spun him around and marched him away from the door, Kora and Sera once again wearing looks of amusement.

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